Non-communicable diseases (NCDs, like cancer or Alzheimer’s disease - AD) represent one of the toughest medical and economic challenges facing our society today; since aging population is increasing, they are becoming major social/economic issues in many countries, including Spain.

Therefore, cures or disease-modifying therapies are clearly indispensable for an improved healthcare. The manifold mechanisms taking place in the intricate pathogeneses of NCDs give rise to considerable difficulties in implementing effective therapies and diagnosis systems. In essence, the aim of MetDrugs requires the establishment of a network of experts to make rapid progress in tackling some of these rising Health issues, and at the same time ensuring that Spain (and Europe) keeps a leading position in this field (a challenging and important topic of current investigation).

The clear motivations of this network are to optimize Spanish research on NCDs, the ambitious objectives established being clearly beyond the capacity of single investigators, research groups or organizations. The development of potential drugs and diagnostic tools for NCDs undoubtedly will have a significant impact on the Spanish/EU healthcare system and on society.

In the short and medium term, this network is expected to generate some important scientific advances. In the long term, the pharmaceutical industry is expected to be interested in the results achieved by the MetDrugs, due to the necessity to have first-in-class drugs against these diseases, so far not totally curable (e.g. cancer) or even incurable (e.g. AD).

Another important goal of MetDrugs is to collaborate with industrial partners to develop metal-based drugs and diagnostic agents.

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