Ahead of the “World Antimicrobial Awareness Week” (18-24 November) 20 national and international organisations from academia, healthcare, global health and the pharmaceutical industry appealed today to G7 governments to step up efforts to tackle the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
Their “Joint Statement on Strengthening the Antibiotic R&D Pipeline by Rewarding Innovation” stresses that only an approach involving both the public and private sectors is likely to succeed.
The signatories emphasise that it is important to ensure that:
– more incentives are provided for research and development on new anti-bacterial drugs,
– new antibiotics against hard-to-treat infections reach patients quickly,
– the potential of vaccines to reduce the risk of bacterial infections is fully exploited, and
– antibiotics that are still effective today are used even more carefully.
In 2022, during its G7 presidency, Germany will have the opportunity to work toward progress and ensure that solutions continue to be worked on during the subsequent Japanese presidency in 2023.
Strengthening the response to antibiotic resistance
Because the problem is multifaceted, the signatories of the joint statement see the need for different measures, some adapted to the health systems of individual countries. Two examples:
In order to strengthen research and development, incentives are needed that provide economic rewards for successfully developed antibiotics against drug-resistant infections ‒ in addition to the current funding support for individual stages of the research and development process prior to approval.
In Europe, access to the latest antibiotics for patients in need is often hampered by the lack of adequate coverage by health insurance or public health care.
Further information: the “Joint Statement” can be found here.