Parliament approves second Innovative Medicines Initiative
The European Parliament has approved the second Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2), a research programme run jointly by the European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry.
The second initiative will have a budget of just over €3bn and focuses on the development of treatments contributing to lifelong health and wellbeing. These treatments are expected to be important in the coming years due to an ageing European population and rising levels of chronic and degenerative diseases.
The vote on IMI2, along with other initiatives in the Innovation Investment Package, took place during the final plenary session before the European Parliamentary elections next month. The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) welcomed the approval, but French MEP Michèle Rivasi, vice president of the Greens-European Free Alliance, criticised the move.
Speaking after the vote, she said: “MEPs come today to give a favourable grant of €1.7bn over seven years to the global pharmaceutical industry, through its European federation, the EFPIA, which represents the interests of all the major companies in this sector in Brussels.”
Despite assurances, she said that there was no guarantee of job creation in Europe, adding “SMEs are particularly vulnerable parties” in IMI2.
