EU's IMI details fourth wave of research projects
The EU's Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) announced details on its fourth wave of research projects with a total budget of over EUR 237 million ($308.8 million) over five years. IMI said it now has 37 ongoing projects with a combined budget of about EUR 800 million ($1 billion).
The new projects include STEMBANCC, which is coordinated by Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) to generate and characterize 1,500 patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines that researchers could use as cell-based toxicity assays and in vivo phenotype drug screening assays. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is coordinating the EMIF project to create a common information framework for patient-level data to link and facilitate access to diverse medical and research data sources, while Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY) is coordinating the COMPACT project to study and overcome delivery and targeting obstacles for biopharmaceuticals. COMPACT aims to help develop and validate formulations to successfully deliver biopharmaceuticals to their targets. GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) is coordinating the CHEM 21 project to generate methods to make the drug development process more "environmentally friendly," and AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) is coordinating the eTRIKS project to create an open platform for use by all IMI projects and other projects that need to integrate and share data from multiple sources. ...