Monday 21 May 2018
INFANT is pleased to announce that it has been awarded €800,000 under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) to improve clinical trial infrastructure for children and infants in Ireland. Part of this funding will be used to set up a new network, In4Kids, to facilitate the development of new drugs for children in Ireland. In4Kids will be the Irish hub of the pan-European multidisciplinary network.
CONECT4CHILDREN (C4C), comprising academia, medical institutions, industry, and affiliated partners. The C4C consortium has been awarded €140 million by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) to improve clinical trial infrastructure for children and infants. Partnership in the C4C network will provide In4Kids members with a gateway to access future funding from the network for Irish research.
Children deserve innovative therapies and medicines developed specifically for them
Speaking at the launch of In4Kids, INFANT Director Prof Geraldine Boylan said, “Children must have access to innovative therapies and medicines that have been developed with the same rigour and urgency as those developed for adults. The C4C network with its Irish partner, In4Kids, will accelerate the availability of high-quality scientific data that will improve the safe and effective use of medicines in children.”
With a budget of €140 million, C4C is one of the biggest awards funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2, funded jointly by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovative programme as well as the European Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The national hub for in4kids will be led by Clinical Research Development Ireland and will bring together a range of children’s clinical research experts, research organisations (e.g. NCRC) and specialty networks in Ireland (e.g. HRB Mother & Baby Network Ireland)
The network also aims to work with parent groups, young people’s advisory groups, regulators and other key partners in children’s research in Ireland.
Welcoming the launch of In4Kids, Dr Pat O Mahony, CEO of CRDI (Clinical Research Development Ireland) said, “The further development of the clinical research infrastructure and research activities for children and infants in Ireland under In4Kids will result in better outcomes for Irish children. We welcome Ireland’s participation in the C4C programme and look forward to making a significant contribution through the In4kids national network which we are pleased to coordinate and support.”
Up to now, paediatric patients generally receive ‘smaller doses’ of adult medicines or dilution of therapies as they have not been specifically developed and trialled on children. Approximately 60% of medicines and therapies used to treat children have not been studied in children, and over 90% have not been studied in infants[1].
The In4Kids network will support clinical research for children in Ireland and the development of new treatments. One of the key goals of this project is to support the use of innovative trial designs and new quantitative methods to foster the development of paediatric medicines and to support development in rare paediatric diseases and high medical need areas. Through this co-ordinated collaboration across Europe that C4C provides, clinical trials will benefit from consistency across implementation, aligned quality standards, co-ordinated engagement with specialist and national networks as well as rigorous strategic and operationally effective trials specifically for children and infants.
Further details about in4kids can be found here:
