A consortium of pharma companies, SMEs and academic researchers launched an ambitious project to address research quality as one of the key requirements for the development of innovative medications. While the initial project’s focus is on neuroscience and preclinical safety, developed quality management tools and standards will hopefully be applicable in every field of nonregulated drug discovery.
The €9.5m European Quality in Preclinical Data (EQIPD) project will last 3 years, and unite more than 20 research groups from industry and academia. The EQIPD project is supported through the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a partnership between the EU and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.
It is extremely important that this project combines the insights of academic groups studying the problems of drug development, of academic laboratory researchers and of industry based researchers. This means that the eventual guidelines will emerge from a cross-discipline group of researchers with expertise across the whole field of drug development.
The project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777364. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and EFPIA (the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations).