The innovative medicines initiative (IMI): a shot in the arm for European diabetes research?

Abstract

The academic community has been quite vocal in complaining about inadequate public funding for diabetes research in Europe [1], and rightly so! The intrinsic and relative lack of earmarked research funds (as compared with the USA) for this particular disease area is truly alarming [1], and our public authorities, both national and international, seem unwilling to rise to the challenge. But if we want our strident alarm calls to be seen as constructive criticism rather than complaints, we must be alert to new opportunities and support them if appropriate. While intended to address just a part of a greater problem, and with a relatively modest budget on the grand scale of things, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI; for further information see: http://www.imi-europe.org/, last accessed in June 2007) may present us with just such an opportunity. There is growing concern that Europe is lagging behind its competitors in developing and launching new drugs. This is due in part to considerable under-funding within a fragmented environment characteristic of much European biomedical research [2]. To redress this imbalance, we need closer collaboration between the public (national governments and the European Commission) and private (pharmaceutical companies and small and medium enterprises) sectors, and much more money on the table. Certainly, any collaboration between academic and industry research groups must be part of a package that ensures academic independence and freedom from domination by the evil empire (‘Big Pharma’ in this particular context). If public funds are involved, as they will be for the IMI, a robust yet transparent competitive review process must be in place, and we should be on our guard to make sure the IMI gets this right. Equally important, any new initiative of this kind must be creative and dynamic in order to capture our imagination and—more important still— imaginative science, and this will involve breaking free from the stranglehold of Brussels and its cumbersome procedures. Let us review the plans in light of these expectations, if not requirements. To begin with, how did this all come about? The European Commission invited the Research Directors’ Group of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) to develop a European Strategic Research Agenda. Its task was to identify bottlenecks in biomedical research and development (R&D) [2] and to come up with a plan, the IMI, in order to address them. The goal is to make Europe more competitive, and to benefit patients. The IMI has four major ‘pillars’: