Medical Research Agency summarised year of work and outlines plans for 2021
Medical Research Agency as part of a conference entitled " Poles' health priorities for 2021. The role of the Agency in creating changes in clinical practice" summarized the activities to date and presented plans for next year. Key areas supported by ABM in 2021 will include. rare diseases, mental health and therapies for lifestyle diseases.
The establishment of the Medical Research Agency is a milestone when it comes to building an innovative public health system. The Agency is in a position to organise and improve spending activity, if only by organising a whole network of entities that will offer the possibility of conducting clinical trials. I believe that 2021 will be the year we recover from the pandemic, and I hope that this will be helped by the Medical Research Agency's plan for the competitions that are set for next year - emphasized Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski while opening the conference.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a worldwide stagnation or even decline in the number of commercial clinical trials outside covid areas. In Poland, data from a year ago is expected to be maintained rather, but when it comes to non-commercial research, looking at the number of projects funded by the Medical Research Agencies, we can expect them to be three times more than last year.
By the end of 2020, MRA will contract a total of one billion zlotys for non-commercial clinical trials. Thanks to the funds already provided in the first year of operation of the Agency, it is possible to carry out almost a hundred projects, which will include more than 20 000 patients, who will gain access to innovative therapies. The funds provided will allow for the mobilisation of research m. in. in the field of oncology, cardiology, pediatrics, hematology or neonatology.
As the President of MRA, Radosław Sierpiński, PhD, emphasised: "Despite the pandemic, the Medical Research Agency has managed to achieve all its goals. As early as next year, patients will also be able to benefit from two priority MRA programs, i. e. In connection with the finalisation of work on the National Plan for Rare Diseases, which is aimed, among other things, at the improvement of the quality of life of patients with rare diseases, the creation of ten specialised Clinical Trials Support Centres and the introduction to Poland of the so far practically unavailable adoptive therapy CAR-T.
Scientific plans for 2021
Improving diagnostics and access to treatment of these diseases, as well as seeing the need to further stimulate the development of Polish scientists in this area, the Agency plans to announce in early 2021 a competition for non-commercial clinical trials dedicated exclusively to rare diseases. The assumed budget of the competition is PLN 100 million.
I am very pleased that the MRA plan includes research to improve diagnosis in rare diseases. This is an extremely important problem. Of course we are aware that in rare diseases we do not catch up with the pace of development of new therapies, which is available to patients with more common diseases, but the initial issue is the diagnostic problem - emphasized prof. Katarzyna Kotulska-Jóźwiak during the conference.