The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a public-private partnership aiming to improve the drug development process. The European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme contributes EUR 1 billion to the IMI research programme. That amount will be matched by mainly in kind contributions (consisting mostly of research activities) worth at least another EUR 1 billion from member companies of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
The aim of IMI is to support pre-competitive pharmaceutical research and development to foster the development of safe and more effective medicines for patients through removing identified bottlenecks in the drug development process and enhance Europe's competitiveness by ensuring that its biopharmaceutical sector remains dynamic and leading edge.
The IMI Research Agenda describes the research bottlenecks in the drug development process and identifies four strategic pillars: predictivity of safety evaluation, predictivity of efficacy evaluation, education and training, and knowledge management. This call addresses the first three of these pillars.
The seven topics covered in the call are:
- 'Improving the early prediction of drug-induced liver injury in man',
- 'Immunogenicity: assessing the clinical relevance and risk minimisation of antibodies to biopharmaceuticals',
- 'Immunosafety of vaccines - new biomarkets associated with adverse events (early inflammation, autoimmune diseases and allergy)',
- 'Improving the preclinical models and tools for tuberculosis medicines research,'
- 'Translational endpoints in autism',
- 'Development of personalised medicine approaches in diabetes',
- 'Fostering patient awareness on pharmaceutical innovation'.
The total available financial contribution to participants eligible for funding will be up to EUR 114 million, matching the in-kind contribution by the research-based companies that are members of the EFPIA.
An indicative range for IMI financial support to an applicant consortium would be between EUR 5-20 million for the topics addressing the two following strategic pillars: predictivity of safety evaluation, predictivity of efficacy evaluation.
An indicative range for IMI financial support to an applicant consortium would be up to EUR 5 million for the education and training -related topic.
To see the full details of the call, please consult the following web address:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7DetailsCallPage&call_id=387