The patient-led academy aims to develop educational material, training courses and a public Internet library to educate patient representatives and the lay public about all processes involved in medicines development. Topics to be dealt with include personalised and predictive medicine, design and conduct of clinical trials, drug safety and risk/benefit assessment, pharmaco-economics as well as patient involvement in drug development. It intends to provide educational material in six European languages targeting eleven European countries.
To improve the availability of both patient-centric information as well as educated patient experts, EUPATI will develop scientifically reliable, objective, comprehensive information on therapeutic innovation by establishing certificate training courses to create 'expert advocates' on therapeutic innovation, developing a tool kit of educational multi-media material to be re-used by patient organisations for educational purposes, and developing an Internet-based library of up-to-date, unbiased information on medicinal development for patients and the public.
The consortium, led by the European Patients' Forum, is comprised of 29 leading pan-European patient organisations, academic and not-for profit organisations as well as European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) member companies. It features expertise across disease areas in education to patients about therapeutic innovation. It seeks to foster collaboration between patient organisations, academic institutions, regulatory bodies, ethics committees and the industry.
A Regulatory Advisory Panel led by regulatory authorities, a Project Advisory Board composed of high level experts with long standing credibility in patient involvement and pharmaceutical R&D, as well as an Ethics Panel will ensure objectivity, transparency and independence of EUPATI's educational content, adhering to the highest quality standards on information to patients.
EUPATI began its work in February and it is expected to run for five years. The launch meeting will be held on 27 March 2012 during the DIA EuroMeeting in Copenhagen. Its five-year project plan constitutes three key phases. Initial educational material will become available after the first 18 months of the project. The project is organised in seven work packages that will ensure the professional and efficient delivery of the results. The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public private partnership between the European Commission and EFPIA, funds the Patients' Academy.
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