Restore Health – Therapies that cure.
On 30 July, the Steering Board of the Large Scale Research Initiative RESTORE met at the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) in Berlin. The Board discussed further how to unlock the potential of Advanced Therapies in Europe and defined comprehensive work packages for the next phase of the European Commission’s (EC) Large Scale Research Initiative competition.
The Steering Board was pleased to note the broad and emphatic backing for RESTORE. Professor Hans-Dieter Volk, coordinator of RESTORE, says: “We are delighted that RESTORE is receiving endorsements from across the board: So far, more than 120 institutional stakeholders and individual associates have signed Letters of Support. We believe this response underlines the potential of Advanced Therapies to be a game changer in health care, the urgency of coordinated action in Europe and the strength of our proposal.”
The development and implementation of Advanced Therapies (Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products and Biologised Medical Devices – ATMP/bio-MD) in clinical routine is the unifying goal of RESTORE. In a shared analysis, the Steering Board recognized a number of current bottlenecks for Advanced Therapies in Europe; consequently, the Board agreed on a strategy and defined work packages to employ the transformative power of a Large Scale Research Initiative. “A well-funded and coordinated action such as the Large Scale Research Initiative would yield profound impact on Europe’s society and economy. With RESTORE we share our enthusiasm to improve patient outcomes through Advanced Therapies and we are glad that our desire for action resonates with so many supporters,” says Professor Volk.
The consortium is now finalising the proposal for the second phase of the competition, after which the EC will support successful initiatives with EUR 1 million for one year to prepare for the final round of competition. Eventually, the EC will select one or two Large Scale Research initiatives to receive a full Large Scale Research Initiative grant.
The founding partners are world leaders from academic and clinical research and industry: Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany), INSERM – Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche (France), University of Zurich (Switzerland), Miltenyi Biotec GmbH (Germany), TissUse GmbH (Germany), Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (United Kingdom), Pluristem Ltd (Israel), Fondazione Telethon (Italy), University Minho (Portugal) and Innovation Acta S.r.l. (Italy).
RESTORE welcomes the support of all stakeholders and associates who are committed to transform healthcare by enabling the “regeneration of health”.
On the picture (from left to right):
| INSERM | Annelise Bennaceur-Griscelli |
| INSERM | Ali Turhan |
| CATAPULT | Michaela Sharpe |
| BCRT | Gady Goldsobel |
| MINHO UNIVERSITY | Nuno João Meleiro Alves Neve |
| BCRT | Hans-Dieter Volk |
| INN-ACTA | Gabriella Dessole |
| TELETHON | Stefano Benvenuti |
| BCRT | Petra Reinke |
| TISSUSE | Uwe Marx |
| MILTENYI | Michael Apel |
| BCRT | Frauke Stähler |
| MILTENYI | Mario Assenbacher |
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