The conect4children (Collaborative Network for European Clinical Trials for Children) consortium launched Monday to facilitate development of new pediatric therapies in Europe by improving clinical trial design.
The European public-private partnership aims to increase patient access to pediatric clinical trials and develop common processes that sponsors can implement in the design and management of pediatric trials. The consortium plans to develop an infrastructure that seeks to improve clinical trials for children, including use of a single point of contact for sponsors, sites and investigators; the implementation of consistent design approaches and standards; and collaboration with specialists.
The six-year project has about €140 million ($164 million) in funding, with €67 million ($79 million) coming from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 and €73 million ($85 million) from industry members. The partnership comprises 33 academic and 10 industry members from 20 European countries and is led by Fondazione PENTA Onlus, the University of Liverpool, the Janssen Pharmaceutica NV unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and Bayer AG (Xetra:BAYN).