EU invests €30m to fight antimicrobial resistance
The EU has pledged €30 million ($35 million) in funding for medical countermeasures to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), earmarked for the discovery and development of new antibacterial medicines.
The investment will be managed by Germany's development bank, KfW, and will be used to support the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) and the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) – two non-profit organisations dedicated to fighting AMR.
At CARB-X, the funding will support early-stage antibacterial research, while GARDP's new funding will go toward late-stage clinical development projects.
In a statement, the European Commission said the aim is to support measures that will ensure "a comprehensive and sustainable pipeline for AMR medical countermeasures."
AMR is associated with more than 35,000 deaths annually in the EU and European Economic Area (EEA), with many more people suffering serious – and in some cases long-term – ill-health. The issue is estimated to cost healthcare systems in the bloc an estimated €11 billion each year.
In July 2022, the EU identified AMR as one of the top three health threats facing Europe, which was followed by a report outlining key objectives to reverse the rise of antibiotic resistance by 2030, such as reducing human antibiotic consumption by 20%, making sure those that are prescribed are used appropriately, and curbing the rates of certain bloodstream infections, as well as boosting R&D into new medicines.
However, an analysis of progress by the European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control (ECDC) last year found that the EU was falling behind on all of the objectives, other than reducing the total incidence of bloodstream infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Meanwhile, the antibiotic pipeline remains narrow, with virtually no new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action nearing late-stage clinical trials, and with only a limited number of products with significant novelty expected to achieve EU approval in the coming years, according to a recent paper in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
The Commission revealed the new funding at the One Health Summit in Lyon, France, at which the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness, and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, said: "With this action, the Commission, through its Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA), is reinforcing the EU's preparedness by supporting end-to-end innovation for antibacterial products and other countermeasures against AMR."
She added that, by "aligning innovation from early discovery to clinical validation, we can accelerate the development of these lifesaving products and ensure their availability."
