A year into PARADIGM to advance patient engagement in medicines development

Since the launch of the EUPATI project almost a decade ago, the long-term vision at EPF is that patient education, training and empowerment are intertwined with patient engagement during the development of medicines. In line with this strategy, to create an ecosystem fostering patient engagement in R&D, EPF co-leads with EFPIA the IMI-funded project PARADIGM.

The synergy between EUPATI and PARADIGM will result in a nexus that will, in the long term, support the de-risking of medicines (in other words, reducing the risks of developing medicines, by better targeting the patients' needs along the value chain and foster the clinical trial operations).

With this in mind, the PARADIGM project forms partnerships with all actors in the area of patient engagement in medicines development, including Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD), an initiative in which EPF is a founding member.

For the past 11 months, the PARADIGM project worked to understand the needs of all stakeholders  when it comes to patient engagement, to develop a framework to evaluate and monitor patient engagement, and to make progress on a sustainability roadmap. More than 500 people responded to our online survey.

In 2019, we will have more patient representatives involved, thanks to a pool of patient advisors selected through an open call who will work with EPF to support our involvement and leadership on this flagship project.

PARADIGM is only at the beginning; however, the 2nd Open Forum on Patient Engagement in September 2019, co-organised with PFMD and EUPATI, will be an opportunity to show  how we are taking patient engagement to the next level.

For more information please contact mathieu.boudes@eu-patient.eu