NANOMED: Nanomedicine Ethical, Regulatory, Social and Economic Environment

Scientists have been making strides in the field of nanomedicine, a key subfield of nanotechnology tackling disease treatment, drug delivery and medical diagnostics. The EU-funded NANOMED (Nanomedicine ethical, regulatory, social and economic environment) project is focusing on all aspects of nanomedicine, with emphasis on providing an objective answer to claims that this field will have a huge impact on the healthcare sector. The one-year project is funded under the NMP Theme (Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production) of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of roughly EUR 700,000.

Scientists define nanomedicine as the repair, construction and control of human biological systems using devices built upon nanotechnology standards. For the NANOMED project partners, their goal is to assess the various aspects of this subfield like economic, regulatory, ethics, communication and patient attitudes. Their work is expected to help EU policymakers direct what has been identified as a significant area for strategic investment in FP7.

"Even if we don't see the nanorobots of Fantastic Voyage fame for a few years, nanomedicine still has immense short-term potential to impact all of our lives," explained Professor Sir John Beringer, member of the Council for Science and Technology, Britain's top-level independent advisory body on science and technology policy issues, and chairman of the NANOMED project.

"Working at the nanoscale is already leading to new highly targeted medicines, improved imaging and diagnostics of disease and even a new generation of implantable sensors for monitoring your health," he said. "Therefore, I am delighted the EU recognises the importance of having a strategic approach to its development."

The NANOMED consortium is made up of experts from Europe including Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany, the French Atomic Energy Commission and Genetic Interest Group Ltd in the UK.

"In this project, I believe we have managed to assemble a team with both the experience and understanding to create what I believe will be a unique report covering all aspects," Sir Beringer remarked. "For example, we aim to have the first accurate projections of market size and potential. To date, this has been impossible with many companies using nanomedicine, but not describing themselves as such."

Sir Beringer noted how discussions on regulatory aspects of nanotechnology are also identifying the need that regulations should either be extended or new ones should be created.

"A further interesting aspect is that the current economic crisis seems certain to increase public interest in policymaking and funding priorities, and a case will need to be made for nanomedicine," the researcher commented. "The final members of working parties are being recruited and the final report will be presented at the end of the year."

Ultimately, the researchers believe that in order to sustain the competitiveness of nanomedical research and development in Europe and in the European healthcare industry, the impacts and consequences of this subfield must be understood in advance. NANOMED will offer European stakeholders a set of recommendations to support decision-making as regards nanomedical innovations.

The European Technology Platform (ETP) Nanotechnology, formed by 53 European stakeholders (composed of academic and industrial experts), wrote a 'vision document' on nanotechnology outlining the extrapolation of needs until 2020. Three priorities exist: nanotechnology-based diagnostics and imaging, targeted drug delivery and release, and regenerative medicine.

From a global perspective, more than 130 nanotech-based drugs and delivery systems have been developed.

For further information, please visit:

Copyright ©European Communities, 2009
Neither the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, nor any person acting on its behalf, is responsible for the use, which might be made of the attached information. The attached information is drawn from the Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS). The CORDIS services are carried on the CORDIS Host in Luxembourg - http://cordis.europa.eu. Access to CORDIS is currently available free-of-charge.

Most Popular Now

Philips and Medtronic Advocacy Partnersh…

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Medtronic Neurovascular, a leading innovator in neurovascular therapies, today announced a strategic advocacy partnership. Delivering timely stroke...

New AI Tool Predicts Protein-Protein Int…

Scientists from Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University have designed a publicly-available software and web database to break down barriers to identifying key protein-protein interactions to treat with medication. The computational tool...

AI for Real-Rime, Patient-Focused Insigh…

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but still... they both have a lot of work to do to catch up to BiomedGPT. Covered recently in the prestigious journal Nature...

New Research Shows Promise and Limitatio…

Published in JAMA Network Open, a collaborative team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Stanford University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the University of Virginia studied...

G-Cloud 14 Makes it Easier for NHS to Bu…

NHS organisations will be able to save valuable time and resource in the procurement of technologies that can make a significant difference to patient experience, in the latest iteration of...

Start-Ups will Once Again Have a Starrin…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. The finalists in the 16th Healthcare Innovation World Cup and the 13th MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION have advanced from around 550 candidates based in 62...

Hampshire Emergency Departments Digitise…

Emergency departments in three hospitals across Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have deployed Alcidion's Miya Emergency, digitising paper processes, saving clinical teams time, automating tasks, and providing trust-wide visibility of...

MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM: Success in Maste…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. How can innovations help to master the great challenges and demands with which healthcare is confronted across international borders? This central question will be...

A "Chemical ChatGPT" for New M…

Researchers from the University of Bonn have trained an AI process to predict potential active ingredients with special properties. Therefore, they derived a chemical language model - a kind of...

Siemens Healthineers co-leads EU Project…

Siemens Healthineers is joining forces with more than 20 industry and public partners, including seven leading stroke hospitals, to improve stroke management for patients all over Europe. With a total...

MEDICA and COMPAMED 2024: Shining a Ligh…

11 - 14 November 2024, Düsseldorf, Germany. Christian Grosser, Director Health & Medical Technologies, is looking forward to events getting under way: "From next Monday to Thursday, we will once again...

In 10 Seconds, an AI Model Detects Cance…

Researchers have developed an AI powered model that - in 10 seconds - can determine during surgery if any part of a cancerous brain tumor that could be removed remains...