"Navarra was the first region in Spain to develop a personalised medicine strategy. A strategy elaborated by three departments, health, innovation and economic development. What makes us leaders in its development," said Mikel Irujo, regional Minister for Economic and Business Development of the Government of Navarra during the opening of the workshop. "Our region stands out for its great strengths around the entire value chain of the health sector. Within the sectors of the Smart Specialization Strategy of Navarra S4, this sector is the one that has grown the most, reaching 793 million." Irujo also affirmed that "in Navarra we have two leading health research centers, Navarrabiomed and CIMA, with quality clinical services and a health sector that employs more than 31,500 people, of which 2,500 are linked to the industry."
During the workshop, ICPerMed members and experts discussed key areas of implementation of personalised medicine within four focus sessions: Patient and citizen engagement and education, regional and international perspectives, innovation system and industrial collaboration and health system implementation. Plenary lectures giving input and best practice examples were followed by panel discussions with experts from various fields.
"The European Partnership for Personalised Medicine (EP PerMed) will gather substantial resources from European countries and regions and beyond as well as the European Commission to fund transnational research and other activities to support the related innovations and their implementation into the health systems " said Ejner Moltzen from Innovation Fund Denmark, Chair of ICPerMed. "EP PerMed will help us to improve our understanding of diseases and to develop innovative therapies, diagnostics and preventive strategies."
"The discussions and information gathered here give us an important insight into the challenges involved in implementing personalised medicine approaches," said Wolfgang Ballensiefen, designated coordinator of EP PerMed at the Project Management agency in the German Aerospace Center (DLR). "In this way, we can update the strategic research and innovation agenda and collect crucial information and developments for the foreseen annual joint transnational calls and other planned activities of EP PerMed".
Expected to be kicked-off by the end of 2023, EP PerMed will support personalised medicine by transnational coordination, joint funding efforts as well as strategic activities. Over the next 10 years, the partnership will stimulate countries to more quickly unlock the potential offered which, in turn, will lead to optimised and sustainable healthcare.
More information can be found on the ICPerMed website under www.icpermed.eu. A workshop report will be uploaded on the website within the upcoming weeks.
The ICPerMed workshop ' Preparing the future for Personalised Medicine: EP PerMed' was organised by the ICPerMed Secretariat and was supported by the European Commission. ICPerMed provides a platform to initiate and support communication and exchange on personalised medicine research, funding and implementation. ICPerMed assembles over 50 European and international partners from 30 countries representing ministries, funding agencies and the European Commission. With the support of the ICPerMed Secretariat, the consortium works on coordinating and supporting research to develop approaches for personalised medicine.
