UCB has announced that CEO Roch Doliveux has been appointed Chairman of the Governing Board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public-private partnership between the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), UCB has been a member of IMI since its initiation in 2006 with Roch Doliveux joining the IMI Governing Board in May 2010.

IMI currently funds 30 projects with a combined budget of around €600 million and covering drug safety and efficacy, knowledge management, and education & training.

Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB and member of the Board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Association (EFPIA) says “The biopharmaceutical industry has reached an inflection point where public-private partnerships, bringing academic and industry knowledge together, are paving the way to better respond to new healthcare needs and bring safer, more efficacious and cost-effective treatments to patients. EFPIA considers IMI as a key instrument to implement the new business models which will ensure the sustainability of the pharmaceutical industry and increase the wellbeing of patients across Europe.’’

Michel Goldman, Executive Director of IMI said: “IMI will greatly benefit from the leadership and patient-centric perspective of Roch Doliveux. As Chair of the IMI Governing Board, Roch will be in a unique position to move forward his vision for the future of the pharmaceutical industry based on open innovation and precompetitive research. The early achievements of the ongoing IMI projects demonstrate that this new model based on public-private partnership is already successful.”

UCB is a significant contributor to the Innovative Medicines Initiative. UCB is participating in fifteen of the consortia within IMI, providing expert input on topics which include neurodegenerative disorders, inflammation, immunogenicity, predictive toxicology, pharmacovigilance, translational safety biomarkers, and strategies for treating COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), as well as a number of training programmes.