NEWMEDS special issue commentary.

Abstract

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is Europe’s largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients—and nowhere is the need more urgent than in the area of CNS medications (2015a). IMI is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), and supports collaborative research projects between the academia and industry. NEWMEDS (Novel Methods leading to New Medications in Depression and Schizophrenia) which generated the articles in this supplement is one of the earliest IMI (2015b). In this Commentary, we introduce the Innovative Medicine Initiative and what makes it unique; we provide perspective on some of the achievements of NEWMEDS and some lessons learned in the process of this partnership over 5 years. The way the IMI consortia are brought together is unique. Before the Call is launched, a consortium of EFPIA companies and, in some cases, other large companies or organizations active in health research agree on the need to work together and with other stakeholders on a specific issue. The topic text is drafted and, following consultation with various groups, the details of the Call text is sent to the IMI Governing Board for approval. Stage 1 Once the Governing Board has given its green light, the Call is published and all interested parties from academia, smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), patient organizations, regulatory agencies, etc. are invited to form consortia and to submit a proposal in response to the Call. The proposals are screened for eligibility and reviewed by independent experts. The experts rank the applications, and the consortium that submitted the top-ranked application is invited to proceed to Stage 2.