New initiatives through adjustment of FY2022 funding for the medical field ― AMED President's Guidelines take shape

On June 22, the Headquarters for Healthcare Policy decided to adjust the allocation of funding to the tune of 13.06 billion yen for research and development in the medical field; these are the first this fiscal year. In light of the status of integrated projects since July last year, and the domestic and international trends concerning topics that should be the focus of support, Dr. Mishima, President of AMED, engaged in discussions about topics for which there should be collaboration across integrated projects and/or programs, and set out guidelines. These consist of four points: strengthening collaboration between programs, projects and fields; international collaboration; training young people; and accelerating research and development and the creation of environments. 4.8 billion yen has been allocated to strengthening collaboration between programs, projects and fields, 2.09 billion yen to international collaboration, 110 million yen to training young people, and 6.07 billion yen to accelerating research and development and the creation of environments.

These funds will be used to implement new initiatives, driven by President Mishima. Establishing themes to work toward and focusing on research and development that will bring together multiple projects from among those supported by AMED will allow those involved to match activities that are expected to solve issues and activities that are expected to spread into society and develop cutting-edge technologies. AMED will be at the center of this initiative; supporting collaborations between multiple programs that fall under the jurisdiction of different ministries will make it possible to take on the challenge of research areas that would be difficult areas of focus for single projects, and support will be provided to activities that researchers hope will produce synergistic outcomes, including the rapid acceleration of research and development based on new perspectives, and obtaining new knowledge and outcomes.

Takayuki Kobayashi, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, noted, 'I empathize with President Mishima's approach, and have high expectations for this new initiative that will connect programs from each ministry.'

As an example, collaboration between the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)'s Program for Advanced Biological Medicine and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Drug Discovery Infrastructure Program (MHLW) will promote the development of innovative immune control techniques using artificial exosomes. Ensuring organic coordination between artificial exosome-producing technology (which ensures the exosomal expression of factors connected to the immune system through the administration of mRNA) and delivery/pharmacokinetic evaluation technologies will promote the development of mRNA medicines with a strong antitumor effect.

The Bridging Program (MEXT) × Drug Discovery Infrastructure Program (MHLW) collaboration will promote research and development with the aim of developing new therapeutic drugs for malignant mesothelioma. The Bridging Program has discovered candidate therapeutic drugs for malignant mesothelioma, but there are concerns that these may cause non-specific side effects, which means improving administration techniques is an issue; with regard to this problem, researchers are using ultra-sensitive drug concentration measuring technology to clarify that these side effects can be avoided through DDS techniques that use ionic liquids from the Drug Discovery Infrastructure Program.

Institutions supporting the Next-generation Cancer Project (MEXT) and the Innovative Cancer Program (MHLW) are collaborating to tie biological samples, including rare cancers and childhood cancers, to high quality clinical information and omics analysis information and add value; they are also carrying out evaluations of drug efficacy/providing support for drug screenings using PDX and organoids, ensuring the rapid creation of a system that will enable many researchers with novel ideas to access research tools.