Why Is Antimicrobial Resistance Not Getting Much Attention from Biopharma

As the pandemic of COVID-19 demonstrated, beneficial outcomes can occur when government and industry recognize a public health threat and work together. Unfortunately, the same sense of urgency is absent for the alarming rise of AMR (antimicrobial resistance).  Antibiotics have saved millions of lives, but the microorganisms are learning to resist.

Each year, almost 5 million people die from associated complications from AMR.  Complicating this is the natural tendency of reserving new antibiotics thereby limiting the return on investment for the research and development by companies discovering new antibiotics.  Trana Discovery strongly endorses programs like the ‘subscription model’ (now being launched in the UK) and efforts by Congress to move the PASTEUR and DISARM Acts through to a floor vote.  All these programs help to remove the uncertainty of making investments in public health infrastructures.