About the BioMed Alliance
The Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe (BioMed Alliance) is a unique initiative representing 21 leading European biomedical societies that together include more than 400,000 researchers and health professionals across Europe. The organization’s aim is to facilitate and promote excellence in health and biomedical research, through advocacy and specific actions, at European level.
You can read about the lastest activities of the BioMed Alliance in their newsletter.
New BioMed Alliance Statement: Open Access Initiatives must not create inequality
Together with medical societies from the Open Access Transition Working Group of the BioMed Alliance we published a statement on 5 October highlighting a series of concerns around Plan S. The statement also expresses support for a European Research Council statement from 20 July stating the ERC’s concerns around this open access initiative and announcing their withdrawal from cOAlition S.
Our main concerns regarding Plan S are focussed on the consequences for: researchers (including inequality and rising costs), guaranteeing the quality of research (especially in health research) and hybrid journals (which play an essential role in informing health care professionals through medical society publications).
To the full statement: Open Access Initiatives must not create inequality > >
Reducing bureaucracy in clinical trials: now is the time!
Medical societies and patient advocates across disciplines call for urgent action to make clinical trials less bureaucratic and more patient-centered, efficient and cheaper.
Excessive administrative demands lead to rising costs and complexity, stagnation of clinical research in Europe, fewer academic clinical trials and limited access to innovative treatments. Unnecessary, inefficient, overly complex or ambiguously worded regulations, guidelines, safety reporting requirements and informed consent procedures pose a threat to exactly that which they were designed to protect: the quality of clinical trials and the safety of patients.
That more flexible, risk-based and pragmatic regulation is possible, without compromising either quality or safety, was demonstrated by the guidance issued by European regulators on the management of clinical trials during the Covid-19 pandemic. A substantial and structural reduction of bureaucracy in clinical trials must be the shared goal of clinical researchers, patient advocates, policymakers and regulators at EU and national levels, ethics committees and the pharmaceutical industry.
At stake is the efficiency and affordability of clinical trials, and with it the quality of future health care and – ultimately and most importantly – patient safety.
To the Coalition statement: Reducing bureaucracy in clinical trials
BioMed Alliance Code of Conduct
All members of the Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe (BioMed Alliance) have approved the Code of Conduct of healthcare professionals and scientific organizations. The BioMed Alliance Code of Conduct sets out core principles to maintain and enhance professional independence, objectivity and scientific integrity.
The BioMed Alliance Code of Conduct also helps to ensure that EAS and the Alliance’s interactions and collaborations with the healthcare sector are for the benefit of patients and for the improvement of scientific standards and medical care.
The BioMed Alliance Code of Conduct oversees aspects of healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations’ relationship with industry and stakeholders. These include continuous medical education, professional development, scientific meetings, exhibition at congresses and research funding.
The BioMed Alliance Code of Conduct
BioMed Alliance on the potential of precision medicine
The European Respiratory Journal published a white paper entitled ‘Moving forward from drug-centred to patient-centred research’. It is based on a white paper on academic clinical research from 2018 that was initiated by EORTC and further developed by BioMed Alliance members. The updated version published in the European Respiratory Journal includes patient perspectives and policy angles to address issues related to academic clinical trials.
In order to bridge the existing gap between market approval and real-life clinical practice, a new infrastructure for applied clinical research is required. This infrastructure should be fully integrated into the cycle of drug development, market approval and clinical application. This process needs to be re-engineered in a such a way that it truly serves the needs of patients and generates the data needed to inform clinical practice.
Better education – better care
Continuing Medical Education is of the mutual interests of the BioMed Alliance members.
Health research is evolving rapidly, and it is essential to keep doctors up to date via continuing and unbiased medical education from recognised medical organisations. The Countinuing Medical Education allows doctors to keep up with the latest developments in healthcare.
To learn more about CME and how better education lead to better care, watch the new BioMedAlliance video on the topic: