Europe to be ‘world’s pharmacy’ with €2bn medicines initiative

Science and research chief Janez Potocnik has set in motiona plan to reinvigorate the way medicines are produced in the EU.

The innovative medicines initiative (IMI) is a“private-public partnership”, says the Slovenian commissioner, which seeks toremove “bottlenecks” currently facing the introduction of new medicines.

“Global challenges are forcing us to cooperate in competitionmore than we have before,” he told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday.

“JTIs are the tools which can help us in that direction.”

JTIs, or joint technology initiatives, are public-privatepartnerships which form a major new element of the EU’s seventh researchframework programme (FP7).

The IMI is one of five JTIs the commission has launched inthe last year. Others focus on embedded computing systems, clean skies,nanoelectronics, and hydrogen fuel cells.

The idea is to create a tool that will make it easier on Europe’s €160bn-euro pharma industry to bring new drugsto production. According to Potocnik, the cost of bringing a new drug on themarket is over €1bn and takes 12 to 13 years.

The IMI has a budget of €2bn to run over seven years, and for2008 will have €123m to hand to promote research projects in areas like asthma,brain disorders and metabolic and inflammatory diseases.

Arthur Higgins, president of the European federation ofpharmaceutical industries and associations, said the aim was to make Europe once again “the pharmacy of the world”.

According to figures released by the commission, up to about10 years ago, seven out of 10 new medicines originated in Europe,but with globalisation and a European ‘brain drain’, this number has dwindledto about three out of 10.

“JTIs are a novelty,” Potocnik added. “We have major newpartners so research and development can focus on European competitiveness, butof course contribute to the quality of life.”

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