Lilly launches new scheme to promote medical innovation

Lilly has announced the launch of a new programme which aims to promote innovative medical research on a global basis.

The Innovation Starts Here initiative will encompass a number of schemes aimed at accelerating the delivery of new medicines to patients, including the Lilly Research Awards Program and the Lilly Innovation Fellowship Awards.

Both of these programmes will see Lilly offering funding support and collaborative opportunities to academic researchers who are conducting studies that will support the company's drug development pipeline.

Lilly is also seeking to increase its own spending on innovative studies, having doubled its outlay on European research and development in the last decade.

Dr Jan Lundberg, executive vice-president for science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, said: "Finding innovative medicines that have clear, demonstrable value for those diseases where the unmet need is great … is not only a scientific imperative, it's an economic one as well."

Last month, the company published its latest corporate responsibility report, showing that it was able to help more than 227,000 people through patient assistance programmes in 2010.