‘Worrying exodus’ in infection research

Tackling antimicrobial resistance needs to become a top five policy priority for the government to help prevent the virtual loss of modern medicine, MPs have said.

A report by the Health and Social Care Committee said it wants to see “tangible progress” over the next six months to “reverse the worrying exodus” from research into antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobial-resistant infections claim at least 50,000 lives each year across Europe and the US alone, along with 700,000 lives globally.

These figures are set to rise dramatically over the next 30 years, with the death toll estimated to be 10 million a year by 2050 – higher than from cancer and diabetes combined.

No new classes of antibiotics have been developed for decades. They are not seen as profitable by drug companies as new antibiotics are only initially prescribed very sparingly rather than as a first-line treatment during their patent lives.

The report says that while in developed health systems it is possible to access alternative second or third-line treatments when patients develop a resistant infection, mortality rates and costs of treatment are likely to be double for a drugresistant infection, generating an estimated cost to the NHS of £180m a year.

It said options to address this market failure include changes to patent law and to the ways that pharmaceutical companies are reimbursed for new antimicrobial medicines.