Europe's Innovative Medicines Initiative has handed out $331 million to back 15 cutting-edge research projects designed to make the continent more competitive with the United States when it comes to drug development.
Academic groups and small companies alike competed for the support--a combination of 110 million euros in cash from the European Union and €136 million in kind from the continent's pharmaceutical industry. That money will go to back "pre-competitive" work that will provide solutions to common problems in drug development. Better ways to offer proof of drug safety and efficacy will be a chief focus and researchers will initially tackle programs for diabetes, pain, severe asthma and psychiatric disorders.
"In times of crisis, such a model of cooperation is proving particularly well suited to answering both EU public health and economic needs," Janez Potoenik, the EU Commissioner for Science and Research, tells Reuters. The European program has been compared to the Critical Path Initiative in the U.S., which is intended to pioneer a shorter path to drug approvals.
- check out the report from Reuters