Innovative Medicines board appointment

The European-focused Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has appointed Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB, to its governing board.

The IMI is a public-private partnership between the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and the European Union. UCB has been a member of the IMI since its inception in 2006. Roch Doliveux is already an EFPIA board member.

Brian Ager, director general of EFPIA, said: "EFPIA welcomes Roch Doliveux's appointment to the IMI governing board. The IMI has already begun to fulfil its potential in reducing the bottlenecks that slow the delivery of innovative medicines to patients. With UCB's existing strong track record within IMI, and the company's ongoing commitment to biomedical research, this appointment can only strengthen the future performance of the initiative."

Roch Doiveux said: "One of UCB's strategies is 'Partnering to increase value and efficiency'. This statement of belief is at the heart of the IMI. As a leading player in European biomedical research, and through our collaboration with the top-quality consortia established within IMI, we are working to improve the efficiency of the industry in bringing safe, efficacious, cost-effective treatments to patients. The collaborative programmes within IMI allow the partners to share pre-competitive data that support drug discovery efforts, bringing not just efficiencies, but also societal and socio-economic benefits."

The goal of the IMI is to improve the environment for biomedical research and development in Europe and to promote innovation through open collaboration. To date, the IMI has issued two rounds of calls for proposals in areas including diabetes, pain, severe asthma, psychiatric disorders, cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases. UCB is participating in 10 of the 15 initial consortia established by IMI. The IMI will issue a third round of calls later in 2010.

The IMI Joint Undertaking is the largest public-private partnership in the area of medical research. The Commission contributes €1bn to the IMI via its 7th Framework Programme. This amount is matched by contributions of at least another €1bn from EFPIA member companies.