The General Assembly of TEDDY – European Network of Excellence for Paediatric Clinical Research took place on January 14th, 2018 in Rome (Italy). The meeting, entitled “A new phase for paediatric clinical research: a play role for TEDDY?”, provided an update on the achievements reached by the Network over the last years and represented an occasion to discuss its future perspectives. Since 2005, when the Network arose from the Task-force in Europe for Drug Development for the Young, and was funded within the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission, it has reached several goals, becoming category 4 Member of Enpr-EMA (European Network of Paediatric Research at the European Medicines Agency) in 2014 and category 1 in 2016.
In 2017, TEDDY has assumed a legal status to be fully represented in the European paediatric research framework. For this reason, one of the main points of discussion of the meeting was the presentation of the new TEDDY statute, that allows the adhesion of natural and legal persons within two categories of members: Ordinaries (they are the legal entities that contribute to the activities of the network) and Supporters (they are the natural persons who contribute individually and participate in the collaborative groups).
Moreover, the meeting provided the occasion to present the topics and the activities of the new TEDDY working groups:
- Standard Operating Procedures for the conduct of paediatric clinical trials;
- Ethic Issues and interactions with Ethic Committees;
- Off-label medicines use in paediatrics;
- Regulatory procedures for paediatric clinical trials;
- Inventory of clinical sites and facilities for clinical trial feasibility;
- Pharmacovigilance;
- Active engagement of children and adolescents in the themes of clinical research;
- Advanced therapies in paediatrics.
This General Assembly gave also the chance to discuss the role and the actions of the TEDDY Network in the European scenario of the paediatric research, explaining its involvement in some important paediatric European Networks, such as PedCRIN (Paediatric Clinical Research Infrastructure Network), Connect4children Network (C4C) and in the new paediatric research infrastructure EPTRI (European Paediatric Translational Research Infrastructure). The meeting represented an excellent opportunity to foster a fruitful debate on the advancement of TEDDY actions and build a strong working basis for the forthcoming activities.
You can download the minutes of the meeting as well as all the presentations at this link.
Here you can also watch a video of the meeting.