Editorial

Dear Colleague,

thank you very much for all the positive feedback to MedChemWatch, the official EFMC e-newsletter! We hope that it fulfils your need and you consider it a valuable source of information.

In this issue we would like to draw your attention to the Innovative Medicine Initiative, which has excellent chances to become operative at the beginning of the year 2008. With this public-private partnership the European Commission together with major European Pharmaceutical Companies will invest € 2 billion to overcome current bottlenecks in the drug discovery and development process. You will also find a short report from the Council Meeting, which was held in June in Portoroz.

I am pleased to announce that the Council welcomed two new member societies, the Section for Medicinal Chemistry of the German Pharmaceutical Society and the Medicinal Chemistry Group of the Portuguese Chemical Society. The lab presentation will highlight the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zuerich, a truly interdisciplinary institution.

Last but not least I would like to encourage you to register on our web-page www.efmc.info. This will ensure that we are using the correct E-mail address and also help to enhance our database. In the near future we will steadily work on increasing our services, which will be accessible for registered users only. I hope you enjoy this issue and wish you a recreative summer break.

Gerhard Ecker
Editor