IMI's collaborative chemistry

Europe's Innovative Medicines Initiative has launched seven new public-private partnerships with a total budget of €237 million ($313 million). In contrast to many of the organization's disease-focused projects, three of the new consortia are taking a drug-centric approach that includes plans to optimize small molecule binding kinetics and develop new delivery systems for RNA- and protein-based therapeutics.

The projects comprise the fourth wave of initiatives launched by IMI since its 2008 founding (see "IMI's fourth call"). In total, the organization now manages 37 ongoing projects with a total budget of more than $1 billion...