EUPATI Germany founded: State platform starts imparting knowledge to patients

21.01.2016 11:51

Involving German patients in the research and development of new drugs and therapies as early as possible – that is the goal of EUPATI Germany. The state platform was founded on January 20th in Berlin. The EUPATI advisory board, which accompanied the process, is made up of representatives from patient organizations, authorities, industry as well as science and research.

“Patients are the experts in their respective diseases. However, they are usually not familiar with clinical studies and the development of new therapies. They could contribute a lot based on their experiences and needs. Because they know where there are problems with previous therapies,” says Jan Geißler, managing director and coordinator of EUPATI Germany and chairman of the patient organization LeukaNET eV

“We help patients to better understand, for example, research processes, clinical studies, ethical frameworks, measures to ensure drug safety and the like, in order to be able to classify them more precisely and actively help shape them. By involving patients, research will become more patient-centered, resulting in therapies that better meet their needs in terms of health and quality of life.”

Next step: training materials and events

In order to be able to involve patients in drug research and development, they must first be trained. The first English-language teaching and learning materials were developed by EUPATI and made available in October 2014 with the start of the “EUPATI training course for patient experts”. These will now be adapted for Germany and will be available on the Internet at www.eupati.eu from the end of January. “The offer of the EU project EUPATI as an important learning and information platform will now also be available to patients and patient representatives in German,” says Jan Geißler. “EUPATI gives patients the opportunity to find out about the processes of drug research and development and to be able to participate actively and competently.”

EUPATI: That's what's behind it

EUPATI is a non-profit EU project that develops and provides information materials and educational events for laypeople without prior medical knowledge. The project aims to meet the growing need of patients to be involved in the research and development of medicines as early as possible. EUPATI involves a large number of different representatives. The EU project, led by the European Patient Forum (EPF), involves patient organizations, scientific institutions such as universities, NGOs, government authorities and healthcare companies.

This merger is organized and financed by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe's largest public-private initiative and at the same time a joint project of the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). EUPATI is establishing independent national platforms in twelve countries, including Germany. These address the respective information needs of patients in the countries and want to ensure that country-specific further training measures are incorporated into the work of EUPATI.