Many medicines used to treat children were designed for adults

Many medicines used to treat children have been designed for adults and have not been properly tested on the young.

The research network will be co-ordinated by the university in partnership with the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust at Alder Hey.

Scientists will work towards developing medicines for asthma, meningitis, epilepsy and migraine.

Rosalind Smyth, Professor of Paediatric Medicine at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, will become director of the new co-ordinating centre.

She said: "Children have the right to the same standards of medicine as adults, and this strategy is another step towards achieving this."

The network is the latest step in the Department of Health's paediatric medicines strategy.

It has been developed in collaboration with Imperial College, London, the Liverpool Women's Hospital, the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and the National Children's Bureau.