Pharmaceutical medicines development is a highly regulated, costly, long and complex process that is largely unknown to the lay public. Benefits and risks of existing and new treatment alternatives are difficult to understand for patients. In an era of growing demand and emphasis on both quality and sustainability of healthcare, it is critical to address this major gap in public perception and knowledge. Well informed patients and carers have a key role to play in the implementation of patient-centred clinical research strategies and approval processes, access to treatments and treatment optimisation approaches.

The European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI), initiated and led by major patient umbrella organisations, welcomed by European Pharmaceutical Industry and run by a strong multi-stakeholder Consortium, will address these issues and improve significantly the availability of both patient-centric information as well as educated patient experts that have the capacity and capability to contribute to medical research.

The Patients' Academy will develop educational modules for the following areas:

1. Medicines development process from research to approval
2. Personalized and predictive medicine
3. Drug safety and risk/benefit assessment of medicines 
4. Pharmaco-economics, health economics and health technology assessment
5. Design and objectives of clinical trials (& roles of stakeholders)
6. Patients roles & responsibilities in innovative medicines development

The Consortium includes pan-European leaders in patient advocacy, academia, not-for-profi t organisations and EFPIA member companies, bringing in key expertise in patient advocacy and processes for research and development in medicines.

The Patients' Academy will reach out to three audiences: Expert patients, advocacy leaders and the lay public at large. It will target specifically patient organizations, advocacy leaders and the lay public in the countries speaking English, German, Spanish, Polish, French, Russian and Italian.

The Patients' Academy was launched in February 2012 and will run for five years. Its five year project plan constitutes three key phases. Initial educational material will become available after the first 18 months of the project. The project is organized in seven work packages that will ensure the professional and efficient delivery of the project results.

To ensure independence and objectivity, the project will be supervised by a Project Advisory Board, a Regulatory Advisory Panel as well as an Ethics Panel.

The Patients' Academy is a highly collaborative project with partners from very different fields including patient groups, academic organisations and pharmaceutical organisations. Objectivity, transparency and independence are vital prerequisites to ensure that EUPATI achieves its goals and is accepted and valued by both the patient community and the wider public.

Our commitment to transparency and independence is reflected in all aspects of the project.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. IMI is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA. IMI supports collaborative research projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost pharmaceutical innovation in Europe.

The project is receiving support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n° 115334, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies.