International Affairs: Joint Position Paper on the EU’s IMI Initiative

In the run-up to the latest call for proposals by the Innovative Medicines Initiative of the European Commission, a consortium of European lobby groups from the biotech sector, including BIO Deutschland, has urged that the obstacles faced by innovative small and medium-sized biotech companies be removed rapidly, that is, before the third call for the submission of project proposals.

Since the programme was introduced in May 2007, loud criticism has been expressed of the funding model for the projects and the allocation of intellectual property rights of the innovations resulting from the collaboration. These points have been presented several times to the responsible authorities (IMI Joint Undertaking Governing Board and the European Commission).

The consortium, which apart from BIO Deutschland also includes the European University Association, EARTO, FlandersBIO, the Leibniz and the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft, as well as SwedenBIO and BIO Belgium, aims to improve the IMI parameters for SMEs, universities and research institutes, so that more participants from these sectors can apply in the next calls for proposals.

The statement by the consortium is available at http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,3343,en_2649_34859_39884109_1_1_1_1,00.htm.