EU To Fund Drug Research Proposals

A partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations will issue a call at the end of October for research proposals in the fields of oncology, inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases. The public-private partnership, known as the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), plans to award $230 million to projects that investigate, for instance, imaging biomarkers for cancer drug development, aberrant adaptive immunity mechanisms, and ways to bridge the gap between animal models and humans. The EU Commissioner for Science & Research, Janez Potočnik, says he hopes the funding will help improve Europe’s attractiveness for pharmaceutical R&D. IMI awarded $337 million to 15 projects at the end of May (C&EN, May 25, page 16).