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Italian program for independent research on drugs: 10 year follow-up of funded studies in the area of rare diseases

Overview of attention for article published in Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, April 2016
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Title
Italian program for independent research on drugs: 10 year follow-up of funded studies in the area of rare diseases
Published in
Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, April 2016
DOI 10.1186/s13023-016-0420-4
Pubmed ID
Authors

Giuseppe Traversa, Lucia Masiero, Luciano Sagliocca, Francesco Trotta

Abstract

In 2005 the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) started a program on independent research on drugs, with the aim to promote clinical research in areas of limited commercial interest. For 3 years (2005-2007) an area of the program was reserved to studies in the field of rare diseases. There is a concern that public funding of research may be wasted. We investigated the outcome of the program. We conducted a cohort study on the projects that were funded by the AIFA in the area of rare diseases. The outcomes were the proportion of published studies, time to publication, impact factor of the publishing journals and relevance for clinical practice. We retrieved published articles through a literature search in peer reviewed biomedical journals indexed by Pubmed. We used the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate the cumulative probability of publication by time from project starting to publication. During the period 2005-2007, 62 projects were funded in the area of rare diseases. Most of the studies (n 39; 63 %) had a randomized design and in 22 (35 %) the control group received an active treatment. For 39 studies (63 %) we retrieved a publication in a peer reviewed journal. The median time to publication was 74 months and, at the maximum period of follow up (109 months), the cumulative probability of publication reached 77 %. The median impact factor was 5.4 (range 1.4-52.4). Considering the clinical relevance, more than 30 % of the published articles presented conclusive findings; an additional 10 % of the studies reached potential breakthrough findings. Even though it takes time to set up and conduct a funding program for independent research on drugs, the results are highly rewarding. Independent funding is crucial in supporting studies aimed at answering questions that are relevant for clinical practice despite the lack of sufficient commercial interest.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 21 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 21 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Other 4 19%
Student > Master 3 14%
Researcher 3 14%
Student > Bachelor 2 10%
Professor 1 5%
Other 2 10%
Unknown 6 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 4 19%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 2 10%
Social Sciences 2 10%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 2 10%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 1 5%
Other 2 10%
Unknown 8 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 March 2017.
All research outputs
#7,896,290
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases
#1,115
of 3,105 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#105,184
of 316,298 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases
#29
of 52 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,105 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 316,298 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 52 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.