Brussels, 15/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - The second call for proposals under the innovative medicines initiative (IMI) will be launched on 30 October. Funding will be €156.3 million, with €76.8 million from the European Commission. €79.5 million is expected to be provided in kind by European pharmaceutical industry companies, represented by EFPIA. The IMI is a public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European pharmaceutical industry and aims to remove research bottlenecks in the current drug development process through innovative research projects and, thus, to speed up the discovery and development of new medicines. “IMI is our response to the need to improve Europe's attractiveness for pharmaceutical R&D and to ensure that results from fundamental research can be rapidly translated into new innovative treatments,” said European Research Commissioner Janez Potoènik. “We should see results from this exciting new research mechanism very soon and hereby that new innovative medicines should reach European patients faster,” he went on. The research topics planned for the second call for proposals relate to the discovery and development of new medicines to treat cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. For more information, go to, http: //imi.europa.eu/index_en.html (B.C./transl.rt)