PUSH Incentives
PUSH incentives are public or philanthropic grants provided to support R&D activities.
Although SMEs develop 80% of antimicrobial candidates, they only receive a very limited amount of PUSH funding. Various reasons can explain.
There are not so many funding vehicles organising calls for proposals against AMR.
The eligibility rules can impose setting-up large consortia, or the participation of large companies. Some funders are also sometimes not allowed to fund the private sector.
Evaluation criteria may also favour high-risk technologies with fast-to-market business models.
AMR companies are unable to compete with other sectors that are not facing market failure in generic calls for proposals.
Fortunately, some funding initiatives have emerged over the recent years (INCATE, CARB-X, GARDP, AMR Action Fund, etc.). Such single-partner, product-driven instruments are useful, but still lack enough resources to support the whole pipeline.
PUSH funding alone cannot solve the AMR ecosystem, but still represents a lifeline and it needs to be strengthened and better aligned to SMEs’ needs.
