Sections & Workgroups > Section on Medicines Development
Section on Medicines Development
With the mapping of the human genome, biotechnology is of increasing importance for development of new and targeted medicines and will impact future medical practice. This calls for an optimising of the current medicines R&D process and a re-thinking of the process. It is for this reason that the Section on Medicines Development was established in 2003. This Section covers all aspects of Medicines Development (which today all will involve biotech in one way or other) as well as all processes within the R&D cycle from idea through research, applied research, preclinical, clinical, regulatory and post-marketing follow-up.
The EFB Section on Medicines Development is a platform for all stakeholders and sciences related to development of medicines. NSMF follows two tracks:
Streamlining:
Activities to optimise and reengineer the current drug research & development processes utilising contemporary scientific knowledge by removing bottlenecks and developing new tools.
Fresh approach:
To re-evaluate the entire drug development process and create a new efficient flow of knowledge generation and management without compromising safety based on recent scientific and technological advances including genome research.
NSMF enjoys strong support from EC DG Research as well as from EUREKA. A steadily increase in members of the section is reflecting that also universities, hospitals, medicines agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and SMEs from most countries in Europe are interested in engaging in this major and strategic initiative. NSMF webpage (www.nsmf.org) provides information about NSMF including an overview of NSMF, reports from workshops, and NSMF relevant events and activities.
At the Board Meeting that took place in the margins of the 14th European Congress of Biotechnology, on September 13, 2009 in Barcelona, the Section on Medicines Development has initiated a joint effort to reform its strategic agenda in the post-IMI era. Key issues on the agenda have included:
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a. Streamlining activities with patient/consumer/citizen groups (who also work on medicine development and recently achieved some major EU-projects). Specific examples include the EFGCP/EGAN’s working party on “roadmap to treatment”. A structural collaboration is expected to be very productive.
b. Operating a focussed website (perhaps as part of the EFB- website) bringing information on NSMF together.
c. Taking a responsibility for the biotechnology and the SMD- sectors in the planned Virtual Patient Academy.
d. Formulating a manifest for governments/politicians containing opportunities and barriers and also views how to proceed.
e. Identifying the points where where our roads cross with EFGCP, with EuropaBio, with EFPIA, with EuroBio and discuss the options for common action on these cross roads.
NEWS
IMI has launched the third call and are available from the IMI website (www.imi.europa.eu). The official launch of the 3rd Call took place on October 22 2010, Submission start date is December 18, 2010 and the deadline for submission will be till January 18, 2011. Call topics are as follows:
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1. Improving the early prediction of drug induced liver Injury in man
2. Immunogenicity: assessing the clinical relevance and risk Minimization of antibodies to biopharmaceuticals
3. Immunosafety of vaccines – new biomarkers associated With adverse events (early inflammation, autoimmune Diseases and allergy)
4. Improving the preclinical models and tools for Tuberculosis medicines research
5. Translational endpoints in autism 6. Development of personalized medicine approaches in Diabetes
7. Fostering patient awareness on pharmaceutical Innovation
For information about the activities of this Section please contact:
Dr. Adreani Odysseos (Chairman)
Organisations: EPSO-Iasis, R&D and University of Cyprus
University of Cyprus
Dept. of Chemistry
75, Kallipoleos Street, Nicosia 1678
Tel: +357-22-892218
Fax: +357-22- 894501
E-mail: odysseos@ucy.ac.cy, andreani@epos-iasis.com