Conference to stimulate innovation in antibiotic R&D

On Thursday 2 June, 2016, the DRIVE-AB consortium, which is developing new economic models to stimulate antibiotic innovation and ensure global access to and sustainable use of antibiotics, held the “Stimulating innovation, sustainable use and global access to antibiotics” conference in Amsterdam.

Global leaders agree on the need to maintain a steady supply of new antibiotics for all as a critical part of the strategy to address antibiotic resistance and that new reward models are necessary to achieve this goal. While basic frameworks have been proposed, the DRIVE-AB consortium seeks a level of granularity that other initiatives have not, moving beyond discussions to concrete plans for policy implementation.

DRIVE-AB shared its preliminary proposals at the event, which attracted more than 180 high-level decision-makers and policy experts, economists, regulatory and public health experts and representatives of pharmaceutical companies and research institutions from around the world. The conference featured keynote speakers and panellists from the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to name a few. The participation of a diverse group of stakeholders at the conference illustrates the level of global interest in the outcomes of DRIVE-AB, and will help the consortium secure the buy-in of stakeholders who can help to implement new incentive policies.

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DRIVE-AB Conference in Amsterdam

The DRIVE-AB Conference Stimulating innovation, sustainable use and global access to antibiotics will take place on 2 and 3 June 2016 in Amsterdam. This conference, generously funded by the Government of the Netherlands and organized by the IMI DRIVE AB consortium, will bring together about 150 invited decision-makers and policy influencers from around the world to explore current and proposed efforts to address antibiotic resistance. The main goal of the meeting is to move beyond discussions and instead identify key policies that can be implemented globally to both stimulate the innovation of critically-needed new treatments and ensure their availability and responsible use. Input from the conference will help inform DRIVE AB’s policy recommendations to the European Commission—an important part of growing global discussion on how to manage the looming public health threat of resistance.

Where are new antibiotics coming from?

While most big pharma companies left the field of antibiotic drug discovery, small companies—mostly backed by academic institutions—are stepping in to drive research and early clinical development in the antibiotics field. Most small companies face serious hurdles when focusing on antibacterial drug R&D.  These challenges are not only financial limitations but also scientific problems, shortage of experienced personnel, dependence on external support, lack of appropriate diagnostics, the need for R&D short cuts, and IP issues in collaborations may impact directly on these companies.

My recent  GEN Exclusives article in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), a widely read biotech publication and online portal highlights some of my activites related to antibiotics R&D in small companies.

An in-depth analysis of the role of small companies in anitbiotics R&D can be found on the DRIVE-AB website. The EU project DRIVE-AB (Driving reinvestment in research and development and responsible antibiotic use) is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) to find ways policymakers can stimulate innovation, responsible use and global access to antibiotics to meet public health needs. A central objective of DRIVE-AB is to engage with all interested stakeholders including small companies.

New economic models to incentivice antibiotics R&D should strongly consider the contributions of small companies and publicly funded research institutions.

Antibiotic research and development: business as usual?

My recent publication in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy describes the problem of global resistance, the dry antibacterial R&D pipelines and the new IMI-funded, multistakeholder, €9.4 million DRIVE-AB (Driving Re-InVEstment in R&D and responsible AntiBiotic use) project with a consortium, composed of 14 public and 9 private partners from 12 countries.

COMBACTE-MAGNET launched

I am partner of the newly launched project COMBACTE-MAGNET. The European Innovative Medicines Initiative’s (IMI) program New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) leads the efforts to  combat antibiotic resistance in Europe by tackling the scientific, regulatory, and business challenges that are hampering the development of new antibiotics. The 7 year, €167 million project will investigate a new approach to preventing respiratory infections in patients in intensive care units and new treatment options for patients with life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria.

It will be exciting to be part of this important project that will perform clinical trials and describe the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance and healthcare associated infections.

DRIVE-AB launched

DRIVE-AB (Driving Reinvestment in R&D and Responsible Antibiotic Use), a public-private consortium funded by the EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), hold its inaugural meeting which announced the launch of a €9.3million project to tackle the dual crisis of antimicrobial resistance and re-stimulate Pharma interest in antibiotic research and development. We will develop new economic models to incentivise antibiotic discovery and development activities while safeguarding the efficacy of antibiotics by researching and advocating their appropriate use.

I am responsible for  communication, engagement of all involved stakeholder groups, and dissemination of results of this multinational project. My partners are the British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and the Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London).