European Science Foundation warns nanomedicine benefits will be lost without major ...( ch trends and funding priorities and th...),Health

The ESF report found that nanomedicine is already delivering significant benefits through new diagnostics, imaging agents and even nanomedicines themselves. Examples mentioned included biosensors from Oxford Biosensors, imaging systems from Philips and Schering, and polymer-based cancer therapeutics from Celltech.

Chaired by Professor Ruth Duncan, Cardiff University, UK, the report carries the following recommendations:

• A strategic focus on nano-therapeutics for major disease areas such as cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disorders
• 5- and 10-year plans to enable manufacturing industry to move to production of in vitro multi-analyte nanodiagnostics and in vivo nanosensors and devices
• Interdisciplinary education and training in nanomedicine, to ensure that Europe has sufficient specialists in the field and to prevent braindrain
• Support for collaborations in nanomedicine between academics and industry including access to manufacturing facilities
• Acknowledgement that nanomedicines represent a new class of pharmaceuticals and that there needs to be a new regulatory approach
• Confronting safety and environmental concerns such as toxicity
• Ensuring that politicians, the media and the general public are informed about nanomedicine and understand its advantages and potential drawbacks.

We hope this report will be welcomed and form a catalyst for action, concludes Professor Duncan I truly believe that we are at the dawn of a new beginning, and that implementation of these recommendations should enable Europe to play a continued leading role in the controlled development of nanomedicine.

ESFs CEO Bertil Andersson says that he is pleased to see the successful conclusion of this foresight study, which has been the first
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Contact: Victoria Gill
vgill@esf.org
33-388-767-714
European Science Foundation
6-Dec-2005