Working together
With resistance to antibiotics becoming a major health threat, a consortium approach to finding new drugs is taking shape
As antimicrobial resistance gets more prevalent worldwide, pharma firms, government bodies and health non-profits are joining hands
AS THE World Health Organization (who) released its first set of surveillance data on anti-microbial resistance (amr) on January 29, it also signalled the search for a new model of research to fight what is deemed to be one of the three greatest threats to human health today. With common bacteria becoming increasingly resistant to available antibiotics and far too few treatments being developed to combat them, collaboration is the guiding principle as the pharma industry, government bodies and health sector non-profits realise the gravity of the problem.
The new who Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (glass) found that there is widespread amr in both high and low-income nations. It said at least half a million people with suspected bacterial infections in 22 countries showed amr. The most commonly reported resistant bacteria were Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, followed by Salmonella spp. Among patients with suspected bloodstream infection, the proportion that had bacteria resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics ranged vastly between different countries, from zero to 82 percent. Resistance to penicillin, the drug most widely used for decades to treat pneumonia, and to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat E. coli associated with urinary tract infections, present alarming spikes, confirming the seriousness of the situation.
In response, a new consortium approach to deal with the situation is coming up. Among those that are treading this path is the research project drive-ab, a consortium managed by the University of Geneva and top drug major Astra Zeneca. drive-ab stands for Driving Re-investment in research and development for Antibiotics and advocating their responsible use and it is tasked with developing new economic models to promote innovation and the sustainable use of antibiotics thus developed.
What is most interesting about this approach is the emphasis on ensuring access to new antibiotics. Since there is an obligation to turn out an antibiotic that ensures “equitable availability and supply”, it is assumed that the new medication would necessarily have to be low-cost in poorer countries. If this promise is kept, it would mark a significant change. Although many new treatments have been launched to treat various cancers, these drugs have proven to be prohibitively expensive and are inaccessible to patients even in the rich countries.
drive-ab brings together 23 partners from pharma firms to academic institutions and public health organisations. After assessing over two dozen incentives gathered from different industries, it has determined that a market entry reward of $1 billion per antibiotic globally could significantly increase the number of new antibiotics hitting the market in the next 30 years. How this investment will be recouped is yet to be spelt out.
The reward is aimed at creating a more attractive market for investment in antibiotic R&D and involves a series of payments to a drug developer along various stages that include getting regulatory approval for a medicine that meets predefined criteria to address public health needs. Based on its research, drive-ab estimates that up to two innovative antibiotics addressing priority pathogens identified by who could receive a market entry reward in the next five years.
Other collaborations are also shaping up to tackle amr. The amr Industry Alliance, which clubs over 100 biotechnology, diagnostic, generics and biopharmaceutical firms and trade associations, says it has begun to share industry data with healthcare professionals and public health bodies “to assess the scale of the problem and pinpoint places where resistant pathogens exist, and make more informed decisions on the ground when assessing treatment solutions”.
This might seem like a replication of glass but in this critical battle the more the forces arraigned against invincible bacteria the better it might be for humankind.