The Innovative Medicines Initiative
Action on COVID-19

Pierre Meulien- Executive Director , IMI
Europe-Japan R&D Webinar on COVID-19
September 17th 2020

IMI – Europe’s partnership for health
IMI2: 2014-2020

IMI1: 2008-2013€3.3 bn budget
More ambitious
More open
Greater scope€2 bn budget
59 projects> €5 bn€2.5 bnPartnership2008 - 2020

€2.5 bn

Using the existing IMI’s projects toprogress research against COVID-19
Valuable contributions to the global effort to tackle COVID-19 from:▪ ZAPI – knowledge and tools for a rapid response to a coronavirus outbreak▪ EHDEN – harmonising clinical data to facilitate reuse and advance research▪ EHDEN, ConcePTION and ADVANCE - helping the EMA gather real-world dataon COVID-19 treatments and vaccines▪ COMBACTE – access to a clinical trial network specialised in infectious diseasestudies e.g involved in site selection in 20 European countries in REMAP-CAP
Pandemic Strata study▪ ELF/ESCulab – fast track assessment for COVID proposals▪ HARMONY – COVID-19 data initiative▪ AETIONOMY & PHAGO – tools for a new COVID-19 knowledge space▪ c4c – resources on COVID-19 for children and families▪ eTRIKS – standards starter pack
▪ DO>IT – informed consent forms for clinical research▪ EUPATI – reliable resources for patientsZAPI: Recent Results on Betacoronavirus
Wang C et al. A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2
infection. Nat Commun 2020 May 4;11(1):2251.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16256-y. PMID: 32366817▪

Report a human monoclonal antibody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 (and SARS-CoV)in cell culture, which targets a communal epitope on these viruses and may offer
potential for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

▪

ZAPI’s platform and recent results feeding in into 2 COVID-19 proposals that havebeen recently selected for funding:1- MANCO (n. 101003651 H2020 Call SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020 call). GMP
manufacturing of the broadly cross-reacting ZAPI’s antibody in high-yield CHO celllines for prophylactic and/or therapeutic use and testing into a Phase I clinical trial.
2- CARE (n. 101005077 H2020-JTI-IMI2-2020-21-single-stage call). Generation of adiverse library of anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies (targeting different Spikeepitopes and functions) with proven therapeutic potential and good manufacturability
characteristics, via a broad spectrum of antibody generation methods.

COVID-19 Study-a-thon▪ On 26-29 March, EHDEN and the OHDSI community
organised a 3-day remote COVID-19 study-a-thon involving
more than 330 researchers, with 37 healthcare databases
from 30 different countries.
▪ The aim was to design and execute studies to inform
healthcare decision-making during the COVID-19
pandemic.
▪ Initial results include two high-impact papers:
1. The largest ever assessment of the safety of hydroxychloroquine which had been proposed for COVID-19
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20054551v1

2. International characterisation of COVID-19 patients
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.22.20074336v1

IMI COVID-19 Call for Proposals▪ Launched in an accelerated manner on March 4th 2020 as asinglestage call
▪ Focus on therapeutics and diagnostics▪ Available budget of €72 million from IMI▪ Industry contribution from selected projects: €45 million▪ Specifically excluded vaccines (both EC and industry were alreadyfunding vaccine R&D through other mechanisms)▪ Received over 140 submissions (major evaluation challenge)▪ 8 projects selected for funding

IMI projects on COVID-19 from Call 21▪ CARE: Corona Accelerated R&D in Europe (started 01/04/2020)
will identify existing drugs that could be effective as treatments for the COVID-19
pandemic, and develop new drugs specially designed to tackle the SARS-CoV-2
virus.
▪ Impentri: Development of Impentri, an intravenous imatinib formulation for
COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (started 01/07/2020)will test in a randomised, double-blind clinical trial the efficacy and safety of theimatinib as a treatment for COVID-19 patients with lung inflammation.
▪ MAD-CoV 2: Modern approaches for developing antivirals against SARSCoV 2 (started 1 August 2020)
Will dive into the molecular details of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and use thisknowledge to develop new COVID-19 treatments by engineering human tissue totest new antiviral treatments in the laboratory.

IMI projects on COVID-19 from Call 21▪ DECISION: A miniaturized disposable molecular diagnostics platform forcombatting coronavirus infections (started 01/07/2020)
will develop a low-cost, miniaturised, disposable molecular diagnostic system o test
patients with laboratory quality performance pretty much anywhere and give them
their results in a matter of minutes.

▪ RAPID-COVID: Robust Automation and Point of Care IDentification of
COVID (started 1 August 2020)
will develop a diagnostic test that can simultaneously detect SARS-CoV-2 as well
as 30 other common respiratory bacteria and viruses.
▪ 3 IMI2 COVID-19 projects focusing on diagnostics still in Grant Agreement
Phase▪ Due to the nature of the emergency, IMI can reimburse eligible project costs
incurred since March 31st▪ So bureaucracy does not slow down research!

Thank you

https://www.imi.europa.eu/