A progress report released by the AMR Industry Alliance has called for greater action to combat the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis.
The AMR Industry Alliance is a coalition of over 100 biotechnology, diagnostic, generics and research-based biopharmaceutical companies and trade associations that was formed to measure industry progress to curb antimicrobial resistance.
The report, based on survey responses from member companies, assesses the investments being made by members to tackle the global issue of AMR.
AMR occurs when a microorganism evolves to stop an antimicrobial from working against it. While the evolution of AMR is a natural process, the rate and spread of AMR has been accelerated by the inappropriate use of antibiotics. Each year at least 700,000 people are killed by drug-resistant infections.
The report pointed to its members鈥� work on AMR, with 31 of the 36 companies that responded to the survey active in early-stage R&D to address AMR. 22 Alliance companies invested a total of $2bn in R&D dedicated to AMR-related products in 2016.
However, the report concludes that 鈥渋ndustry investment is threatened鈥�. A major issue raised is the lack of push and pull incentives in AMR R&D. Pull incentives are those that aim to ensure that a drug will be profitable, and push incentives are those that lower the cost of development.
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By GlobalDataThe report argues that the financial benefits of pharmaceutical companies investing in AMR R&D are currently not high enough to stimulate the level of research and development needed in this area.
Over 90% of responding companies viewed current progress on R&D incentives as either 鈥減romising but far to go鈥� or 鈥渋nsufficient relative to the challenge鈥�. Without changes to reimbursement, valuation mechanisms and commercial models, nearly one-third reported that they will likely decrease their investments in antimicrobial R&D.
The report cited 鈥減oor discovery prospects, combined with weaker returns鈥� as a major reason for the lack of investment.
The report contends that governments must encourage investment in AMR-related innovation, saying that they have a key role to play 鈥渢o slow the spread of AMR and create an environment that supports sustainable investment in AMR-relevant innovation and access鈥�.
Significant research challenges and relatively low investment has limited the number of new therapies in the development pipeline to combat AMR. As no new classes of antibiotics have been approved since the 1980s, the number of treatment options is decreasing.
Many major drug companies have cut back on AMR R&D. In 1990, there were at least 18 large biopharmaceutical companies developing antibiotics; today there are eight.
Speaking at an AMR discussion event hosted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Westminster on 31 January, Chair of the review on AMR Lord Jim O鈥橬eill offered two solutions to the lack of incentives to invest in AMR R&D. Market-entry rewards would mean pharmaceutical companies would be offered government payments for bringing new antibiotic drugs to market, while he also praised a recently-announced system by Access to Medicine Foundation which ranks companies鈥� efforts in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
O鈥橬eill said: 鈥淚 hope that gets enormous amounts of attention, especially for influencing stock market analysts, because ultimately it is that which is going to force pharmaceutical companies to start changing.鈥�
