IMI 2009: Drug/Disease Modelling; Open Information Day: 17th Nov 2009, Brussels

Drug/Disease Modelling: Library & Framework (DDMLF): IMI 2009 Call Topic 7 The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a unique pan-European public-private partnership aiming to foster collaboration between large and small biopharmaceutical and healthcare companies, regulators, academia and patients aimed at promoting pre-competitive pharmaceutical research and development. An essential goal of the IMI initiative is the improvement of knowledge management. Significant gaps and inconsistencies exist in knowledge integration across the various phases of pharmaceutical development. This is largely attributable to the inherent complexity associated with assimilating such disparate information, and hinders efficiency and innovation. Modelling and Simulation (M&S) is a discipline growing in importance across all stages of pharmaceutical development, optimising tasks such as target feasibility analyses, characterisation of drug/disease properties, and prediction of clinical trials and integrating information to allow informed decision-making in a quantitative context. However, M&S technologies build on many data sources, formats and tools either proprietary or incompatible with one another. This impedes the ability of stakeholders (industry, academia and regulatory authorities) to effectively leverage and share knowledge about drug, disease, placebo and trial design properties, and ultimately impairs the evaluation of efficacy and safety of new medicines. With a view to addressing this, a call topic proposing the development of a Drug and Disease Modelling Library and Framework has been included as part of the Knowledge Management pillar of the 2009 IMI Calls. Briefly, this topic proposes the development of the following: * a public and freely available Library for drug/disease models, to streamline the re-use and sharing of existing pharmacometric, statistical and systems biology models and code, * a software Framework to facilitate exchangeability and interoperability, * a set of common standards and languages describing pharmacometric and systems biology data and models, * and a set of disease prototypes across various disease areas, serving as Proofs of Concept When working in concert, these will provide the necessary infrastructure for integration and sharing of knowledge in a quantitative drug development context. Full details of the call topic are provided from the IMI website at http://www.imi.europa.eu/calls-02_en.html. Details of the rules for participation, and the call process, are at http://www.imi.europa.eu/documents_en.html. Funding for the project, will be provided by IMI (projected to be EUR 9 million for a duration of 5 years) and matched by an equal amount provided through the EFPIA Consortium as in-kind contributions (expertise, employee time, and relevant data). An IMI Open Information Day has been scheduled for November 17, 2009 in Brussels in order to provide potential applicants from academic teams, SMEs and other interested entities with practical information regarding the preparation of expressions of interest in response to the new call. All those interested are welcome to attend - an agenda and an online registration form are available at http://www.imi.europa.eu/events03_en.html. Hope to see you there! Best regards Lutz Harnisch and Justin Wilkins for the EFPIA Steering Committee