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Drugs companies encouraged to finance new $2bn fund to tackle antimicrobial resistance


Pharmaceutical companies can help combat the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by contributing $2 billion to a fund that would specifically support the development of new antibiotic drugs, according to a new report.

A group made up of economists, health specialists and public policy experts believes that the global AMR Innovation Fund is needed to "jump-start a new innovation cycle in antibiotics by getting more money into early stage research".

The group has been commissioned to carry out a review of AMR on behalf of the UK government after concern was expressed about a lack of new antibiotic drugs being developed and the growing resistance of bacteria to existing available treatments.

The AMR review group said that the global AMR Innovation Fund can help address "critical gaps" in antibiotics research and development. As well as financing the project, pharmaceutical companies should also contribute their "technical expertise", their report said. A final report by the review group is expected in 2016.

"A well-resourced Innovation Fund can complement the long term research being funded by established science funding bodies," the 'Securing new drugs for future generations: the pipeline of antibiotics' report (44-page / 634KB PDF) said. "Their track record in commissioning high quality research has often been outstanding, with barriers between industry and academic researchers increasingly being broken down to support collaborative innovation. But a new fund has the potential to go even further, faster, by more actively commissioning and guiding research where it identifies neglected opportunities."

The group said that it thinks the global AMR Innovation Fund should not need to be operational for more than five years, providing other reforms are made to help incentivise antibiotic drugs research and development.

"Five years of extra, targeted multi-year funding of this type could be sufficient to re-invigorate the research space over a total of 10 to 15 years, to such an extent that it is no longer required over the longer term," it said.

In its report, the group also called for governments to offer greater certainty to pharmaceutical companies over the reimbursement they can expect to receive from developing new antibiotics. It said that the volume of sales of the new antibiotics should not determine how much money pharmaceutical companies make from developing those drugs.

One way to achieve this "de-linkage" would be for governments to get behind a new global body that would buy new antibiotics in lump sum payments and manage their supply. Under this model, pharmaceutical companies would "surrender the right to market their new drug" but "would be reimbursed by an amount sufficient to ensure an adequate return on their development costs, and the investment risk incurred", the AMR review group said.

"Eligibility for such a buyout, and the price at which this would be done, would be set transparently against well-defined criteria, providing developers with as much certainty as possible, and ensuring that new antibiotics are reimbursed according to their value (or potential value) to society," it said in its report. "With full control over the marketing and supply of a new antibiotic, the global body would in principle be able to ensure that the drug is used internationally according to unmet need and patterns of emerging resistance, subject to strict conservation measures but still accessible to countries at all income levels."

Leslie Galloway, chairman of EMIG, the trade association for small and medium sized pharmaceutical, biotech and medtech companies, said that the need for action on AMR has been "clear for over 20 years" and that the UK government is to be commended for taking the lead on this. 

Although Galloway acknowledged that a focus on developing new treatments for chronic conditions within the industry has contributed to a lack of new antibiotic drugs becoming available he said that everyone is culpable and no sensible lead has been taken by governments until now. While industry has developed some new antibiotics governments had "pushed down" the price they were willing to pay for those drugs, meaning the pharmaceutical industry was "pressed to make high risk investments for very little return".

Galloway welcomed the adoption of the 'lump sum' model proposed by the AMR review group which he said could in effect see governments fund the launch of novel generic drugs.

"It is important that the focus of the proposed project is on research expertise and not just financial," expert in life sciences Helen Cline of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said. "It has the potential to be a leading global collaborative project, with pooled resources, incentives and rewards, complementing and adding to the outstanding research done by academic researchers and currently funded by the established scientific funding bodies. Although the project will not be without its challenges there are already examples of public private partnerships working to improve healthcare globally."

Dr Mark Edwards, EMIG's research and development director, said that better "point of care diagnostics", to ensure antibiotics are targeted at non-resistant bacteria and not viral infections, would also help address the AMR issue, as well as continued vigilance with regard to the appropriateness of their use. He said, though, that whilst the situation in the UK does need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, the AMR problem in the UK is less severe than in many other EU countries such as Greece and Italy, where the critical issue of the “good husbandry” of antimicrobials might need additional focus by those health systems.

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