Description :

This action supports the policy priority to be better prepared to respond to serious cross-border health threats. It contributes to the achievement of the EU4Health Programme’s general objective of protecting people in the Union from serious cross-border threats to health and strengthening the responsiveness of health systems and coordination among the Member States to cope with serious cross-border threats to health (Article 3, point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2021/522) through the specific objectives defined in Article 4, points (b) and (c), of Regulation (EU) 2021/522.

Scope

This action aims to diversify and advance the pipeline of BSA candidates. More specifically, it will support the development and further characterisation of broad-spectrum antivirals targeting identified HERA priority viral families, which largely can be divided among respiratory RNA viral families, such as Paramyxo-, Orthomyxo and Coronaviridae, as well as those targeting viral families known for causing viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF), such as Arena-, Bunya-, Flavi-, Filoviridae. The action aims to identify a potent BSA candidate, in order to advance its clinical development. A robust pipeline should contain multiple BSA candidates for each viral family that are developed in parallel. When selecting the BSA candidate, attention will be paid to the complementarity with existing Horizon Europe projects.

The proposal would need to cover early safety and efficacy trials for testing new or improved anti-viral therapeutics, with a clear regulatory and clinical pathway, including first in humans.

Innovative delivery systems and suitable safety profiles for broad use should be considered when possible as well as the application of novel approaches and widely applicable workflows (e.g. artificial intelligence) for rapid and reliable identification of broad-spectrum anti-viral therapeutics.

Expected Impact

HERA’s threat assessment of 2022 included a vulnerability analysis with regard to the availability or absence of medical countermeasures, in particular the availability of vaccines and treatment options. Given that the large majority of identified virus families lack effective vaccines and/or effective therapeutics at the EU and global levels, HERA’s long-term aim is to, inter alia, support the creation of a diverse portfolio of BSAs and BCCs that can be further developed in clinical by identifying most promising candidates and supporting their characterisation and assessment, including through clinical trials. Actions funded under this topic are therefore expected to either bring innovative, emerging, and cutting-edge elements with significant economic potential to the internal market or to reduce or prevent strategic dependencies of the Union, including by contributing to the Union's technological leadership in the innovation and development of BSA and enhancing the access to these products in the EU.

Description :

LifeArc announces £5 million drug repurposing programme for motor neuron disease

• LifeArc is launching new £5m programme to help find new treatments for motor neuron disease (MND).
• The programme is seeking applications from the international MND research community for research projects looking at repurposed drugs and drug combinations to tackle the neurodegenerative condition.
• The programme will verify the potential effectiveness of promising treatments to improve their chance of success in clinical trials in unique offering in fight against MND.
• Funding is part of LifeArc’s multi-million pound Motor Neuron Disease Translational Challenge to make MND treatable by 2030 and ultimately find a cure.
• MND is a neurodegenerative condition that affects the brain and nerves causing weakness, loss of movement and is currently fatal.

LifeArc announced today that it will commit £5 million in grant funding to find new treatments for motor neuron disease (MND) as part of a drug repurposing programme to tackle the high failure rate in MND clinical trials.

Currently, potential treatments for MND, including repurposed drugs, have failed to show beneficial effects in patients and the failure rate for treatments in clinical trials for MND remains very high. LifeArc aims to improve the success rate of clinical trials by funding pre-clinical research studies on repurposed drugs that show potential and, uniquely, verify that they could be effective in treating MND.

International research teams in academia and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are eligible to take part in the programme, with funding of up to £750,000 per project available. To be considered eligible for funding, applicants must have identified a new repurposed drug with experimental evidence that shows it has potential for treating MND.

The chosen projects will benefit from LifeArc’s deep expertise, advice and mentorship in translational research, its drug-repurposing know-how and access to its collaborative network of project partners. This is all part of the charity’s aim to support the next generation of translational scientists and give projects the best chance of success.

This funding call is part of LifeArc’s Motor Neuron Disease Translational Challenge to make the condition treatable by 2030 and ultimately find a cure. Breaking the research deadlock in MND is a key priority for the charity and forms part of the Challenge’s £50 million investment to accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into new breakthroughs to transform how MND is detected, treated, and managed.

Currently, around half of those diagnosed with MND die within two years and six people are diagnosed with MND every day in the UK. The condition currently affects around 5,000 people in the UK and more than 330,000 worldwide. There are currently no treatments that can cure the condition and the only licensed drug for MND in the UK has a modest effect on extending life.

Dr Paul Wright, Head of LifeArc’s MND Translational Challenge, said: “We are fortunate to have exceptional research in the MND community both in the UK and further afield but despite this, most clinical trials using repurposed drugs fail due to lack of effectiveness. Improving confidence in drug repurposing requires more robust preclinical research, meaning that repurposed drug candidates are progressed into trials with sufficient evidence to predict they could benefit someone living with MND. To achieve our ambition of making MND treatable by 2030, we need to start with better decision making at the pre-clinical stage to demonstrate as early as possible that a repurposed drug candidate has the potential to deliver improvements for patients.”

David Setters, MND campaigner and co-founder of Patients United to End MND, said: “This major initiative gives the MND community another boost as we build on recent exciting progress in research. While the development of new therapies remains crucial, the key benefit of repurposing is a shorter trial timescale given that the drugs will have already passed safety tests. The increased prospect of access to more trials in the relatively near future not only brings hope to patients, but also a heightened sense of “self-worth” by being involved in research. Those of us living with this brutal condition greatly appreciate the considerable funding and impetus that LifeArc has brought to MND research in recent years. The team’s focus on translational research to accelerate the arrival of meaningful treatments combined with a desire to harness emerging discoveries from around the world, as with this new programme, gives us a real lift.”

Dr Jane Haley MBE, Director of Research at MND Scotland, added: “Motor neuron disease is rapid, brutal and terminal, and people with MND don’t have time to wait, so it is important that all avenues to possible new treatments are explored. Repurposing of existing licenced medicines is one way of speeding up the process of finding effective treatments. It’s been tried very successfully in cancer, where it has delivered many new treatments for patients, so it is important that MND researchers learn from their successes. We welcome LifeArc’s £5 million investment in this area – it is about time there was a world without MND, and this can only be achieved through research.”

Dr Brian Dickie MBE, Director of Research Development at the MND Association, said: “This exciting new funding call will provide a real shot in the arm for the research community, catalysing the translation of the vast new knowledge gained about MND in recent years and feeding the pipeline of repurposed drug candidates available for clinical trials.”

Jessica Lee, Director of Research at My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, said: “MND research is at a tipping point; we have never known more about the biology underpinning MND and our research community is collaborating like never before. We now need urgent and coordinated investment to drive forward the search for new treatments. We are pleased to welcome LifeArc’s new funding call which could bring new treatments to people living with MND in years, not decades, and we look forward to supporting the programme in any way we can.”

The funding call will be underpinned by the Guiding principles for drug discovery and development in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis white paper that is also being published today. This is the output of a year-long project that has brought together leading researchers, clinicians, industry experts and people living with MND to outline an agreed approach to reduce the risk of clinical trials of new treatments through an enhanced evidenced-based approach to pre-clinical research.

Researchers interested in applying for funding are encouraged to join a webinar about the project taking place in February 2024 and can register here.

A parallel funding scheme to support data science and AI/machine learning approaches to repurposed drug candidate identification in MND will also be made available through the programme. LifeArc will fund up to five bioinformatic projects that aim to exploit MND data sets with up to £100,000 available per project over 12 months.

Description :

*Please note the dates for call launch and deadlines are not official yet. We will modify them as soon as this information is available.

IHI published draft information on future call topics a few months ahead of the official call launch. The aim is to give you additional time to find or build a consortium and prepare a strong proposal.

Note that as draft topics are still under development, the texts may change considerably between the versions published here and the call launch, and you should always check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched.

Topics:

• Improving clinical management of heart disease from early detection to treatment
• User-centric technologies and optimised hospital workflows for a sustainable healthcare workforce
• Clinical validation of biomarkers for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression and treatment response

The topics are currently under consultation with the States’ Representatives Group (SRG) and the Science and Innovation Panel (SIP). They may therefore change considerably between the versions published here and the call launch, and applicants should check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched.

Description :

*Please note the dates for call launch and deadlines are not official yet. We will modify them as soon as this information is available.

IHI published draft information on future call topics a few months ahead of the official call launch. The aim is to give you additional time to find or build a consortium and prepare a strong proposal.

Note that as draft topics are still under development, the texts may change considerably between the versions published here and the call launch, and you should always check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched.

Topics:

• Support healthcare system resilience through a focus on persistency in the treatment of chronic diseases
• Development of practical guidance and recommendations for using real world data/real world evidence in healthcare decision-making

The topics are currently under consultation with the States’ Representatives Group (SRG) and the Science and Innovation Panel (SIP). They may therefore change considerably between the versions published here and the call launch, and applicants should check the final, approved topic texts once the calls are launched.