EU provides €144 million for new research on rare diseases
On 28 February – Rare Disease Day 2013 – the Commission announced €144 million of new funding for 26 research projects on rare diseases. These projects will help improve the lives of those suffering from a rare disease – i.e. 30 million people. The selected projects bring together over 300 participants from 29 countries in Europe and beyond, including teams from leading academic institutions, SMEs and patients' groups. The goal is to pool resources and work beyond borders, to get a better understanding of rare diseases and find adequate treatments.
The 26 new projects cover a broad spectrum of rare diseases such as cardiovascular, metabolic and immunological disorders. They will aim at:
- developing substances that may become new or improved therapies for patients;
- understanding better the diseases' origins and mechanisms;
- better diagnosing rare diseases;
- improving the management of rare diseases in hospital and healthcare settings.
Many of the new projects will contribute to the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC), the largest collective rare diseases research effort world-wide. Initiated by the European Commission, its key objective is to deliver 200 new therapies for rare diseases and the means to diagnose most of them by 2020. The new projects will bring the number of EU-funded collaborative research projects related to rare diseases to close to 100 over the last six years. Altogether, they represent an investment of almost 500 million euro.
For more information on EU research on rare diseases: http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/medical-research/rare-diseases/index_en.html
