EU Therapeutics Strategy: Commission presents a Therapeutics Innovation Booster to identify and support new treatments for COVID-19

It facilitates the identification of promising research projects and technologies and provides guidance to researchers and innovators to best focus efforts and accelerate innovation. The guidance provided in this Booster is based on independent scientific advice, and focuses on facilitating the development of COVID-19 treatments that address the needs of patients as these evolve during the pandemic. It therefore supports efforts to bring safe and effective treatments to patients across the EU as fast as possible, as this remains a high priority in the transition towards the next phase of COVID-19. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The European Union has been taking decisive action with its researchers and innovators to develop vaccines and treatments to protect our citizens. The Therapeutic Innovation Booster supports our continuous search for new therapies by scanning the research landscape and decreasing the gap between early-stage research and clinical use.” Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Therapeutics is an important part of our response to COVID-19. They save lives, they limit the need for hospitalisation, speed up recovery times and reduce overall symptoms. With our Therapeutics Strategy, we are building a portfolio of safe and effective COVID-19 treatments addressing all stages of the disease, including the development of medicines focusing on long COVID. Research and innovation is crucial to close the knowledge gap and develop treatments that deliver for our citizens and the Therapeutics Innovation Booster, working closely with HERA, will be key for this.” As announced in the Therapeutics Strategy, the Therapeutic Innovation Booster will feed into the activities of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) that will set up an interactive mapping platform for promising therapeutics. A call for tender to design the platform was launched and the results are expected to be published in the next months. More information is available here.