Industry Welcomes Global AMR Action Fund

Industry has welcomed the launch of the Global AMR Action Fund, which aims to bring two to four new antibiotics to patients by 2030 to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The AMR Action Fund was launched on July 9, 2020.

More than 20 biopharmaceutical companies are involved in the fund and have raised US$1 billion so far in new funding to support the clinical research of innovative new antibiotics to address the most resistant bacteria and life-threatening infections. The fund is an initiative of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), and was unveiled on July 9, 2020 at simultaneous virtual launch events in Berlin, Germany, and Washington, DC, with a third event taking place in Tokyo, Japan on July 10, 2020.

“Unlike COVID-19, AMR is a predictable and preventable crisis. We must act together to rebuild the pipeline and ensure that the most promising and innovative antibiotics make it from the lab to patients,” said Thomas Cueni, director general of IFPMA, in the announcement press release. “The AMR Action Fund is one of the largest and most ambitious collaborative initiatives ever undertaken by the pharmaceutical industry to respond to a global public health threat”.

“AMR is one of the key global challenges of our times. Despite being a global health (and BIA) policy focus for years, no market solution has yet delivered the incentives needed to make novel antibiotic development an attractive investment prospect,” said Steve Bates OBE, chief executive of the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA), in a July 9, 2020 BIA press release on the fund. “That is why the launch of the Global AMR fund today, to which UK [United Kingdom] small and medium sized companies seeking to develop new antibiotics can apply from the autumn, is set to be a game changer. The US $1 billion from the global pharmaceutical industry is designed to accelerate programs in biotech companies to develop novel antibiotics. The UK biotech industry has great capacity to deliver the innovation needed. The fund launched today provides a great new opportunity for UK biotech entrepreneurs.”  

Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said in a July 9, 2020 ABPI press release, “This [the Global AMR Action Fund] is a significant investment from an industry that’s serious about fighting AMR, but it’s just one piece of a very complicated puzzle. This new research fund comes with a plea to national governments around the world to ramp up their efforts to fix the market and work with us to find a sustainable solution.”

Sources: EFPIA, BIA, ABPI