The European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI)

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public private partnership between the European Commission and EFPIA, funds the 'European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation' (EUPATI). Starting on 1 February 2012, the patient-led academy will develop educational material, training courses and a public Internet library to educate patient representatives and the lay public about all processes involved in medicines development. Topics will include personalised and predictive medicine, design and conduct of clinical trials, drug safety and risk/benefit assessment, pharmaco-economics as well as patient involvement in drug development. EUPATI will provide educational material in six European languages targeting eleven European countries.

Pharmaceutical medicines development is a highly regulated, costly, long and complex process that is largely unknown to the lay public. Benefits and risks of existing and new treatment alternatives are difficult to understand for patients and the public. In an era of growing demand and emphasis on both quality and sustainability of healthcare, it is critical to address this major gap in public perception and knowledge.

Well informed patients and carers have a key role to play in the implementation of patient-centred clinical research strategies, approval processes, access to treatments and treatment optimization. With appropriate training, patient advocates can become accepted partners in scientific, ethical and regulatory committees which can accelerate and improve clinical trials, drug development and access strategies. Furthermore, educating the public can reduce scrutiny against clinical research and therapeutic innovation.

To improve the availability of both patient-centric information as well as educated patient experts, EUPATI will develop scientifically reliable, objective, comprehensive information on therapeutic innovation by establishing certificate training courses to create 'expert advocates' on therapeutic innovation, developing a "tool kit" of educational multi-media material to be re-used by patient organisations for educational purposes, and developing an Internet-based library of up-to-date, unbiased information on medicinal development for patients and the public.

The consortium, led by the European Patients' Forum, comprises of 29 leading pan-European patient organisations, academic and not-for profit organisations as well as EFPIA member companies. It features excellence across disease areas in state-of-the art, high quality, objective education to patients about therapeutic innovation. It will foster collaboration between patient organisations, academic institutions, regulatory bodies, ethics committees and the industry.

A Regulatory Advisory Panel led by regulatory authorities, a Project Advisory Board composed of high level experts with long standing credibility in patient involvement and pharmaceutical R&D, as well as an Ethics Panel will ensure objectivity, transparency and independence of EUPATI's educational content, adhering to the highest quality standards on information to patients.

In its third round of calls in 2010, the Innovative Medicines Initiative focused on seven topics. Six of them were on research areas such as autism, tuberculosis, personalised treatment approaches in diabetes, liver injury, risk of antibodies as treatments and immunosafety of vaccines. The seventh topic moved onto new grounds: 'Fostering patient awareness on pharmaceutical innovation'. It aimed to address the lack of societal awareness of the complexity of new drug development as a key factor in patients’ suspicion of and resistance to becoming involved in the development of new treatments, and to harnesses previously ad-hoc educational activities in a coherent, strategic, quality-oriented and sustainable way.

The project will start its work on 1 February 2012 and will run for five years. The launch meeting will be held on 27 March 2012 during the DIA EuroMeeting in Copenhagen. More information about the project can be found at http://www.patientsacademy.eu.

Contact:

European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI)

http://www.patientsacademy.eu
Contact person: Jan Geissler, EUPATI Director, jan@patientsacademy.eu

Contact Person EATG: David Haerry, Project Leader, david@haerry.org

Laure Sonnier, EATG Scientific Adviser, laure.sonnier@eatg.org