The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) was launched in 2008, with an initial budget of €8bn. As a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the IMI aimed to catalyse collaborative research and development at scale, to accelerate the development of innovative medicines for areas of unmet medical need such as neurodegenerative diseases.
In their recent article, published in a Special Issue of the Frontiers in Neurology journal, the Neuronet Consortium have analysed the structure, assets and collaborative networks in the IMI neurodegeneration portfolio. This analysis revealed a complex and diverse web of 236 partnering organisations, driving research that has resulted in tangible and intangible benefits for industry, academia and wider society. Authors include Jean Georges and Angela Bradshaw of Alzheimer Europe, with collaborators at Synapse Research Management Partners, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Janssen, and Sanofi.
Neuronet (2019-2022) was a Coordination and Support Action that established a platform for promoting collaboration, communication and synergies between the different projects in the IMI Neurodegeneration portfolio, which represents a total investment of over €380 million. In their new publication, Neuronet partners undertook an integrated programme analysis of 18 IMI projects on neurodegenerative disease, evaluating project parameters, results and partnering organisations, also performing a series of interviews and surveys to collect perspectives and lessons learned on collaboration. Projects have created tools, standards and approaches to improve the development of therapeutics and diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
The analysis showed that effective collaboration is a strong driver of innovation, but can be hampered by administrative, organisational and legal challenges in the public-private partnership setting. However, it is possible to overcome these challenges using a systems leadership approach, increasing the efficacy and impact of these large-scale research initiatives for the neurodegenerative disease community.
Read the full article, here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.994301/full