About SUMMIT

SUMMIT (Surrogate markers for micro- and macro-vascular hard endpoints for innovative diabetes tools) is a pan-European research consortium funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). SUMMIT brings together the scientific expertise and clinical resources from 19 leading universities and research institutes, six pharmaceutical companies and one small/medium sized enterprise (SME). The project started on November 1, 2009. Project duration will be five years.

SUMMIT plans to systematically identify genetic risk factors for chronic diabetic complications. A collection of patient samples from a variety of cohorts will be analyzed by high-throughput techniques, e.g. genotyping, and both patient samples and newly discovered genotypes will be applied for biomarker discovery. The goal is to deliver at the end of the project’s lifetime a set of biomarkers able to better predict disease progression and drug effects and thereby to shorten clinical trials. In addition, SUMMIT will develop optimized imaging technologies suitable to monitor progression and reduction of vascular complications in diabetic patients as well as new animal models that better mimic human disease progression. All SUMMIT activities will be supported through computational methods and in silico models for biomarker assessment and prediction of diabetic complication to be developed by the consortium.

In accordance with the IMI research agenda, SUMMIT will help to accelerate the process of bringing new medicines to patients by increasing the efficiency of medicine development.

The IMI is a public/private partnership between the European Commission (EC) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Each of the partners contributes with one billion EURO to the IMI budget for research grants to be awarded to European public-private partnerships, initially until the end of 2017. While the budget allocated by the EC will be exclusively awarded to beneficiaries from the public sector and to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), EFPIA partners will meet their budgetary obligations through in kind contributions.

For more information, please see the websites of IMI, EFPIA and the European Commission

SUMMIT Facts

  • Coordinator: Boehringer Ingelheim
  • Managing Entity: Lund University
  • 26 partners from 7 European countries
  • 6 pharmaceutical companies
  • 1 SME
  • 19 academic institutions
  • Project start: 01 November 2009
  • Project duration: 5 years
  • Project Budget: 32.6 Mio EURO
  • Objective: Identification of susceptibility markers predicting diabetic complications