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Europe can innovate its way to growth

Posted by
France Nivelle, Global Communications & Change Support
10-Aug-2011
The EU economy might be on a rocky stretch of the road these days but the pharma industry could shed a glimmer of light. I'm talking about the largest public-private partnership in medical innovation taking place in Europe today. By any standard, the Innovative Medicines Initiative – of which UCB is a proud member – is a bold project designed to revitalise the ‘ecosystem’ for R&D innovation in Europe.

It’s a €2 billion public-private partnership between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry, set up to accelerate the development of better and safer medicines for patients.

To put that in context, the US Food & Drug Administration’s Critical Path Initiative has a budget of around $6 million per year, so the IMI is a massive statement of intent.
 
UCB has already participated in several research projects under the initiative and our CEO, Roch Doliveux, is a member of the IMI governing board. This helps keep UCB at the heart of medicines research in Europe and ensures that our view of patient-centred innovation is shared with other stakeholders.

Michel Goldman, Executive Director of the IMI, was interviewed by BioCentury TV at the BIO 2011 event in Washington DC. He said the initiative puts large pharma companies “in the driver’s seat” and would help attract more R&D to Europe.

BioCentury TV also conducted an interview with Roch Doliveux, at that same event. He stressed the importance of open innovation and patient-driven drug development.

UCB planning R&D seminar

Speaking of the IMI, we’re already looking forward to the initiative’s PharmaTrain seminar on Biomarkers and Surrogate Endpoints which we’ll be hosting at our headquarters in Brussels on September 22nd and 23rd.
 
The event is a pan-European post-graduate initiative for professionals involved in medicines development.

So, be assured that Europe’s pharma sector and policymakers are committed to reinvigorating the industry and making sure we invest in innovation.

At UCB, we believe this can deliver better medicines which make it from bench to bedside more quickly than in the past, and we’re happy to be playing an active part in the IMI.

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