BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Innovating antibiotics

Why IMI launched EU-industry consortium to transform antibiotic development

June 4, 2012 7:00 AM UTC

Europe's Innovative Medicines Initiative is testing the boundaries of public-private collaboration by funding late-stage trials of pharma-backed compounds as part of a €223.7 million ($281.6 million) consortium supporting the development of new antibiotics. In return, participating companies will share clinical data, and may need to consider the role public funding played when determining pricing if the drugs reach the European market.

IMI is a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). It was created to increase Europe's competitiveness in biomedical innovation and to overcome bottlenecks in drug development by encouraging collaboration between stakeholders including pharma, academics, and biotech companies...