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Funds for improving the drug development process by supporting more efficient research and development cooperation among academia, SMEs and the bio-pharmaceutical industry.
* Member States or associated country, or created under Union law;
* Third country identified in the work programme
Objectives
* Development of antivirals as well as other types of therapeutics to address a rapid response to the current COVID-19 outbreak;
– Relevant “clinical ready”-assets include approved therapies or compounds in development, which could be repurposed for use in treating patients with the coronavirus. For example, this could include (but is not limited to), angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, protease inhibitors or immunotherapies (for example antibodies/antibody-like molecules) that could be relevant in the context of CoV. If repurposing is proposed, this should be supported by a preliminary rationale of the compound’s potential efficacy against COVID-19. Where relevant, evidence of regulatory and ethics approvals for the investigational products included in the study(ies) must be presented
* Development of therapeutics to address the current and/or future coronavirus outbreaks;
– Identification of new potential assets and approaches that could be utilised including preventive strategies and combination approaches, and that could also address potential resistance. This may also include the optimisation of promising treatments used in rapid response (e.g. reformulation)
* Development of diagnostics, ensuring rapid evaluation of candidates based on existing technologies;
– Diagnostic tests will be essential for clinical trials of new or repurposed drugs, to help stratify patients and assess treatment efficiency (surrogate endpoint such as viral clearance)
* Development of fast and reliable tools that go beyond the state of the art for detection of COVID-19 carriers and symptomatic individuals suspected of COVID-19 infection;
– These are essential and of utmost importance to manage the outbreak, isolate patients at risk and treat people accordingly. It is crucial to differentiate and identify respiratory pathogens with similar clinical symptoms (e.g. flu, respiratory syncytial virus, other viruses or bacteria) and/or detect emerging pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2. This can be achieved through point-of-care (POC) testing or centralised testing
Priorities
* Fast-track development and availability of therapeutics and/or diagnostics to be used in the clinical management of patients infected by COVID-19 and/or future outbreaks of coronaviruses, and to ensure that a variety of drugs are available for patients, including tackling resistance, and combination therapy;
* Contribution to public health preparedness and response in the context of the ongoing epidemic of COVID-19 and/or future outbreaks of pan-coronaviruses;
* Significant impact on global health, both at the individual and the public health level by leading to results that have a direct impact on people at risk of exposure to coronavirus or on patients suffering from coronavirus disease
Among financed actions
* Antivirals as well as other types of therapeutics to be used in the current outbreak, including preventive and symptomatic treatments;
* Novel therapeutics including combination treatments to ensure appropriate treatment for current and/or future outbreaks and/or to prevent resistance;
* Diagnostics
Additional information
* This call for proposals is an open call for proposals
* Initial duration of the action : up to the participant
* Eligibility:
– Be a consortium of at least three independent legal entities, each established in a different Member State or associated country
* The action must take place in an eligible country
25 August 2021
