European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry began work on Wednesday on implementing a research initiative that aims to remove severe bottlenecks in the drug development process.
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.
"IMI is about pooling public and private efforts so that Europe can be a big player. We want to be the best in the world and become a champion's league for bio-pharmaceutical research by moving from individual project-funding, to joint program funding involving industry and public stakeholders," said European Union (EU) Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik.
Research projects in the areas of brain disorders, metabolic and inflammatory diseases will be launched later this year.
The commission, the executive body of the EU, hopes that the IMI will boost EU's competitiveness in bio-pharmaceutical innovation and foster the EU as the most attractive place for pharmaceutical research and development.
The EU was once known as the "world's pharmacy" with seven out of 10 new medicines originating from the EU until 1998. Today thishas fallen to about three out of 10.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article