Background

During the Dutch presidency of the European Union in 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) was commissioned to develop a research agenda for Europe. This was based on the fact that resources available for developing and supplying medicines to respond to unmet medical needs are not infinite and that decisions will have to be made between competing priorities.

The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) conducted an inventory of research programmes on priority medicines themes in Europe funded by the European Commission (Specific Support Action Priority Medicines). The outcome of the inventory showed that research on medicines for children is the most promising area to focus on in an European partnership.

To this day, the use of unlicensed and off-label medicines in children is widespread. Between 50-80% of the medicines used in children have never been studied in this population or do not have the same indication as in adult use. In 2004 the European Commission released a proposal for a Regulation of medicinal products for paediatric use, that entered into force on 26 January 2007.

ERA-NET Priority Medicines for Children (PRIOMEDCHILD) is officially funded since January the first, 2007 for a period of three years. PRIOMEDCHILD is a network of eleven research funding organisations from ten different EU-member states working on the development of research concerning medicines for children.

PRIOMEDCHILD will provide a great opportunity to boost pharmaceutical innovation and will assure that medicines are developed for children with transnational joint efforts, releasing the existing potential of the European Research Area which will greatly benefit children across Europe.