The Rare Disease Moonshot coalition encourages the rare disease research community to seize the opportunity presented by the Innovative Health Initiative’s call for proposal on Biomarkers, in alignment with the Research Needs Recommendations on Diagnosis
In line with its mission of facilitating public private collaborations to address rare disease research “white spots”, the members of the RD Moonshot coalition encourages the research community to apply to the Innovative Health Initiative’s (IHI) call for proposals on “Clinical validation of biomarkers for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression and treatment response” (Call 7 Topic 3).
The deadline is May 22nd, 2024.
While the call text does not explicitly reference rare diseases, its objectives are well suited to address their challenges.
As per the topic text, few biomarkers are clinically validated or the technology to make them accessible to clinical use is not mature enough. In addition, different actors (academia, clinicians, patients, developers, regulators, etc.) may have different definitions and expectations. The IHI topic aims
- to progress candidate biomarkers towards clinical validation and, when relevant, to regulatory acceptance; and/or
- to progress towards clinical validation innovative technologies necessary for making biomarker(s) accessible for clinical use. In proposals focusing uniquely on these technologies, applicants should justify how such progress will enable the validation of the biomarker(s) for use in a clinical context.
This aligns very well with our Research Needs Recommendations on Diagnosis that outlines where public and private sectors could pool efforts to address diagnostic research needs to implement changes that no stakeholders’ group can achieve alone.
Through these collaborative efforts, the rare disease community can look forward to breakthroughs that once seemed beyond reach, turning the tide for those in the shadows of the white spots.