France's LEEM puts case for EFPIA/EC venture

The French drug industry association (LEEM) has announced its participation in the first call for proposals from the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a collaboration between the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations and the European Commission. The event is scheduled for April 30 in Brussels, Belgium, at the EC's headquarters (Marketletter April 7).

The LEEM highlighted the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) being involved in the IMI joint undertaking. Christian Lajoux, the LEEM's president, said: "the originality of the IMI is to unite for mobilizing projects and key technologies - in a pre-competition stage - a number of players that are traditionally in competition, as well as to bet on excellence by uniting, at a Europe-wide level, the expertise of SMEs and of the research centers around the larger firms."

At a briefing in Paris, France, co-hosted by the LEEM and two research centers, the Medicen and the Genopole, Pierre Tambourin, the director general of the Genopole and vice president of the Medicen center, reminded that "this culture of partnership is indispensable for innovation and the improvement of the discovery process."