New safe medicines faster: a proposition for a pan-European research effort.

Providing support for downstream drug development has not traditionally been a primary focus of public research funding programmes. However, the European Commission has decided to include the drug development process in the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (2002-2006). If the present proposal is adopted, research consortia and networks must be ready to exploit the proposed funds. 'Integrated Projects' and 'Networks of Excellence' will allow complex topics to be tackled simultaneously by many research groups and associated stakeholders, but these will be very demanding to implement.