I attended a seminar at the Senedd in Cardiff on antimicrobial resistance.
Antibiotics represent one of the most powerful tools in the NHS to fight life threatening diseases such as Pneumonia, HIV and TB. In so many cases antibiotics have allowed patients, who may not be able to have surgery or chemotherapy to successfully undergo these procedures and make full recoveries. They can often be lifesaving for so many people who are already suffering from other conditions such as Cancer.
However, as Dr Rick Greville said drug resistant infections are on the rise: Around 1.2 million people across the world die from infections which are resistant to antibiotics every year. These so called ‘superbugs’ are evolving all the time. If we don’t find new ways of stopping them, that number is estimated to rise to 10 million people a year in just three decades from now. The antibiotic "pipeline" isn't effective enough at creating new treatments that are staying ahead of the ever evolving infections, diseases and bugs.
Around one in three patients in hospital rely on antibiotics to treat infections including those which can arise during or after surgery (such as hip and knee replacements and organ transplantations) or cancer chemotherapy treatment. Without antibiotics, treatment for many conditions would not be possible. That’s why we must prioritise the search for new ones and protect the ones we have already.
This issue affects every person on the planet. Governments, healthcare systems and the pharmaceutical industry must team up to find new ways of discovering and paying for effective antibiotics. It is critical that the appropriate frameworks are in place for companies to invest the billions of pounds required to discover the new antibiotics needed for patients.
The life sciences sector including pharmaceutical companies are key to discovering new and effective antibiotics, that will save lives. There is an urgent need to for policy reform to create new market conditions that establishes a new and sustainable investment in antibiotic innovation.
An AMR Project in NHS England is trialling a new subscription style model for antibiotics, where payment is based on the product’s assessed value using a new comprehensive evaluation framework. This is expected to commence in April 2022. We must ensure that we evolve and learn from the project to find a sustainable, long-term solution is put in place for all new antibiotics which is fully and entirely value-based, and that the model works across the whole of the UK.
ABPI Cymru Wales have recently launched a joint project on antimicrobial resistance with Tenovus Cancer Care. The collateral is available from our Together for Antibiotics website.