Why IMI PARADIGM? – The research foundation perspective (Guest blog)
23.04.19
Children and young people represent 21% of the European population, yet they represent 100% of the future of our society.
Disease in minors can be considered as “antinatural”. A child is expected to be born and grow up healthy; nevertheless, there are a huge number of conditions that have their onset in the early ages and only affect minors. This is especially so in the case of rare diseases. From the 8,000 conditions that can be considered rare, around 80% of them affect minors.
On the other hand, there is a limitation of treatments for paediatric patients and also an emergent need of medicine designed for children. Half of the treatments prescribed for paediatric patients have never been tested in them and when it comes to neonates this figure increases to around 90% of treatments.
The Paediatric Regulation that came into force in the EU on 26 January 2007, aimed to improve the health of children in Europe by facilitating the development and availability of medicines for children aged 0 to 17 years. Despite the regulation, however, more patient-centered research is required with the aim to design better medicines for children.
You can read the full blog on the PARADIGM website.
