Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is working to improve health by speeding up the development of, and patient access to, innovative medicines, particularly in areas where there is an unmet medical or social need. It does this by facilitating collaboration between the key players involved in healthcare research, including universities, the pharmaceutical and other industries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), patient organisations, and medicines regulators. IMI is a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Union (represented by the European Commission) and the European pharmaceutical industry (represented by EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations). IMI was launched in 2008 and currently has over 100 projects. Some focus on specific health issues such as neurological conditions (dementia, schizophrenia, depression, chronic pain, and autism), diabetes, lung disease, oncology, inflammation & infection, Ebola, tuberculosis, and obesity. Others focus on broader challenges in drug development like drug and vaccine safety, knowledge management, the sustainability of chemical drug production, the use of stem cells for drug discovery, drug behaviour in the body, the creation of a European platform to discover novel medicines, and antimicrobial resistance. IMI also supports education and training projects. IMI has a budget of over €5 billion for the period 2008-2024, making it the world’s largest PPP in health research. Half of this comes from the EU’s research and innovation programmes, the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and Horizon 2020. The other half comes from large companies and organisations, mostly EFPIA companies. These do not receive any EU funding, but contribute to the projects ‘in kind’, for example by investing their researchers’ time or providing access to research facilities or resources. Follow us on Twitter: @IMI_JU Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/IMInewsletter