Spain to contribute Euro 80m to EU's Innovative Medicines Initiative

Spain is planning to contribute Euro 80m to the €2bn EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) aimed at reinvigorating r&d in Europe's biopharma sector.

"We're looking at providing 8% of the €1bn which the European Commission will contribute to the joint public-private partnership," said Ferran Sanz of the Spanish Platform for Innovative Medicines, an academic-government association involved in the IMI.

Europe's pharmaceutical sector, through the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Association (EFPIA), is to match the EC funds in kind, such as personnel, laboratory facilities and equipment. The budget is to cover the period from 2008 to 2013.

"The IMI is a great opportunity to join efforts and knowledge to boost European biosciences innovation so we can compete with better-funded nations such as the US and Japan," said Isabel Noquer of the Carlos III Institute, the Spanish government's main health research centre.

Announced last May, the IMI brings together the public and private sectors to accelerate the development of new medicines in Europe with a special emphasis on involving small and medium-sized pharma companies, universities and research centres.

Its main aim is to provide new methodologies and tools for the rapid development of safer and more effective medicines for patients by overcoming pre-competitive research bottlenecks in the drug development process.

The IMI's priorities will be cancer, brain disorders and inflammatory, metabolic and infectious diseases.