Update on the progress of IMI-PainCare, a public-private partnership supported by the European Union to improve the care of patients with acute or chronic pain. EFIC is one of about 40 partners of this consortium (www.imi-paincare.eu):
INTEGRATE-Pain Consortium
Similarities in aims and scopes of the work being conducted by IMI-PainCare and NIH led to the INTEGRATE-Pain Consortium [Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) – National Institutes of Health (NIH) Transatlantic Emphasis Group on Research and Translation-to-care Efforts for Pain]. Working together, the Consortium fosters cooperation and consensus in the field of pain research. Dedicated to improving the understanding, management, and treatment of pain, both teams have prioritized identification of common opportunities in preclinical and clinical research, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the discovery and development of new non-addictive treatments and improving the management of pain.
The NIH HEAL INITIATIVE EPPIC-Net Program
The Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) is a Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, clinical trial network that develops and conducts phase 2 pain clinical trials for non-addictive pain therapeutics. EPPIC-Net solicits applications proposing new or re-purposed drugs, biologics, or devices for pain conditions that currently lack adequate treatment. EPPIC-Net is open to academia, industry, and non-profits from the U.S. and internationally. EPPIC-Net is not a grant program. Selected applicants do not receive funds but, rather, gain access to a robust clinical trial network with a wide-reaching infrastructure and expert investigators providing a complete phase 2 study, including study design, conduct, and data analysis in collaboration with and at no cost to the applicant. The EPPIC-Net program engages collaboratively with applicants to design trials customized to their asset and needs. Applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Since first opening in late 2019, EPPIC-Net has 2 active clinical trials and has developed a novel platform protocol for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The HEAL goal of EPPIC-net is to collect high-quality evidence in time-efficient, biomarker-informed phase 2 trials that will be highly predictive of an asset’s performance in phase 3 labeling studies.
Information about EPPIC-Net and how to apply can be found here. EPPIC-Net staff can be contacted at: eppicnet@ninds.nih.gov.
