The People Pay, Corporations Cash In: Problems Plague EU Medical Research Initiative

The European Union spends billions in subsidies on pharmaceutical research, with funds going to the Innovative Medicines Initiative, an alliance of corporations and universities with the aim of developing new drugs.

But an investigation by Spiegel Online, Swiss public broadcaster SRF and the Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard showed that the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), funded with more than €2.5 billion ($2.74 billion) in taxpayer money, has been used almost exclusively to subsidize the pharmaceutical industry through the circuitous route of research.

Website: Innovative Medicines Initiative http://www.imi.europa.eu/

ESO: Background information: Parliament clears €3 billion EU medicines R&D initiative http://www.europeansources.info/record/parliament-clears-e3-billion-eu-medicines-rd-initiative/

ESO: Background information: Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking http://www.europeansources.info/record/proposal-for-a-council-regulation-on-the-innovative-medicines-initiative-2-joint-undertaking/

Politico, 28.04.15: EU health agencies to get knuckles rapped http://www.politico.eu/article/eu-health-agencies-to-get-knuckles-rapped/

Politico, 15.06.15: EU drugs partnership gets new chief http://www.politico.eu/article/pierre-meulien-innovative-medicines-initiative-executive/

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