European Science Foundation Sets Out Research Strategy to Push ...
News Desk UK
Wednesday 21 June 2006, 7:00 GMT
PR Newswire UK (press release), UK - Jun 21, 2006
... approach to prioritise and combine the efforts of many excellent
scientific and clinical groups working at a national level, and
accelerate research in the ...
European Science Foundation Sets Out Research Strategy to Push
Rheumatic Diseases up the Health Agenda and Speed Development of New
Therapies
BRUSSELS, June 21 /PRNewswire/ --
- Europe's Experts in the Field Will Hear the Plan and Discuss the
Recommendations at Their Annual Meeting in Amsterdam this Week.
The world's largest meeting of experts in rheumatic diseases will today
hear and debate calls for a pan-European approach to prioritise and
combine the efforts of many excellent scientific and clinical groups
working at a national level, and accelerate research in the field.
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) meeting in Amsterdam
will be briefed on the findings of an expert group on rheumatic
diseases, established by the ESF to set out research priorities for
Europe, to improve treatments and prevent disease.
Stiff and aching joints may be accepted as an inevitable aspect of
ageing, but the fact is that rheumatism is the leading cause of pain
and disability in Europe, with approximately 100 million sufferers.
Joint diseases account for half of all chronic conditions in over
65-year olds, a figure that will rise as the population ages.
And while these diseases are mainly afflictions of age, there is
significant unmet medical need in paediatric rheumatism.
The cost of treatments and the economic loss caused by rheumatic
diseases is estimated to more than Euros 200 billions per year.
The task force, comprising Europe's leading researchers and clinicians,
along with observers from a patients' representative group and the
European Medicines Agency, EMEA, has looked across the field,
considering all aspects of basic research and clinical practice, and
distilled its findings into five key recommendations. The aim is to
provide coherent objectives for national and European funding bodies
and healthcare providers, and ensure that rheumatic diseases are
acknowledged as a major group of diseases within the European
Commission Framework Programme 7.
Bertil Andersson, ESF Chief Executive said, "The ambition in this
policy paper lies not only in identifying key issues in epidemiology,
basic, translational and public health research in rheumatic diseases,
but also in presenting the considered and balanced view of experts from
across the field on what the research priorities should be."
The following recommendations are made:
1) Promote a pan European research effort to increase
understanding of the basic molecular and cellular processes involved in
rheumatic diseases, working from animal models, patient samples and
relevant genes, as the platform for discovering novel targets and
validated drug candidates
2) Support coordinated, independent, European studies and clinical
trials by setting up a pan European network that can pull together
defined patient cohorts and coordinate epidemiological research
3) Establish a European network to apply advances in cell therapy
to rheumatic diseases
4) Create a focussed European research effort in the two serious
degenerative rheumatic diseases, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, to
understand the underlying pathology with the aim of developing
therapies
that stop degeneration/initiate regeneration of damaged tissue.
5) Set up a permanent Scientific Advisory Group within EMEA to
advise the drugs regulator on the approval of new treatments.
The ESF and EULAR want scientists meeting in Amsterdam this week to
discuss and question these recommendations, enabling them to be refined
and presented as representing the views of all Europe's experts in
rheumatic diseases.
Professor Maxime Dougados of Groupe Hospitalier Cochin, Paris, co-chair
of the task force group said, "Excellent research is being carried out
in countries across Europe. We need to create bridges to allow data be
pooled so we can compare or merge different cohorts. This will help us
to assess the burden of disease, understand the predisposing factors
and find biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring disease."
"At the same time we need a strong relationship between EMEA and
rheumatologists, to allow patients' needs to be considered in the drug
approval process, and to ensure the regulator gets consistent,
independent and expert advice."
Co-chair, Professor Andreas Radbruch of DRFZ, Berlin, said, "The great
challenge in rheumatology today is to apply the growing understanding
of the underlying molecular mechanisms - both in terms of how disease
is initiated and propagated, and the cellular processes involved in
degeneration and regeneration of the affected tissues - to develop
disease-modifying and regenerative therapies."
"Across Europe, there is considerable competence in the field of
rheumatology, but it will require significant pan-European coordination
and funding of integrated research to achieve this goal."
Contacts:
Dr Carole Moquin-Pattey
cmoquin...@esf.org
Professor Maxime Dougados
maxime....@cch.ap-hop-paris.fr
Professor Andreas
Radbruch...@drfz.de
Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of European Science Foundation