Medicines

Everyone needs medicines at some point. For yourself, or for someone you’re caring for. And the proper use of medicines can play a role at any stage of life, from the unborn child to the palliative care phase. Sometimes medicines are only temporarily needed, for a one-off treatment; in other cases, several medicines might be continuously needed for many years.

Through a variety of programmes ZonMw directs its funding towards every part of the drug research field: from fundamental research, through the pre-clinical phase in translational research, to the ideal use of existing medicines.

We also support research into whether medicines always represent the best treatment option for a given health problem. Efficiency research provides insight into which treatments offer the best and most cost-effective results, thereby opening the way to better and more affordable care – whether this care comes in the form of a medicine or another type of intervention.

The Good Use of Medicines programme aims to identify lacunae in the safe, optimal, and effective use of existing medicines. The research projects are divided into various themes, which include drug dosage, polypharmacy, adherence, drug safety, drug repurposing and dosage forms.