Expanding the Accelerating Medicines Partnership
The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) has served as an effective vehicle for public-private partnerships in biomedical research since 2014. AMP initially brought together the FNIH, NIH and FDA with not-for-profit organizations and industry to accelerate early-stage drug development in Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes and the autoimmune disorders rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus. By enabling joint planning of research in the highest areas of need and sharing resources, expertise and data, AMP has made significant progress in understanding disease pathways at the molecular level and in identifying new targets for treatments. All of the data generated from AMP are made broadly available to the research community through online knowledge portals for use in drug discovery and development.
In 2018, the AMP team expanded work in two key areas:
The number of people living with Parkinson's disease is expected to nearly double by 2040, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and there are still no disease-modifying drugs (NINDS) approved for treatment. Through the new AMP PD program, researchers will transform the current model for developing diagnostics and treatments for patients by identifying and validating biomarkers that track disease progression and serve as new drug targets.
Extension of AMP RA/Lupus to a 6th Year:This program extension will enable researchers to deploy emerging technologies that can further analyze tissue, blood and urine samples from patients living with RA or Lupus. The program will create a more detailed understanding of the molecular nature of these diseases. By examining samples at the single-cell level researchers are identifying the genes, proteins and chemical pathways that play important roles in these diseases and uncovering new targets for drug development.