Antibiotic resistance is a global public health threat. Modern health systems rely on antibiotics to prevent and treat infections, and the need for new drugs is urgent. In a joint call to action, the AMR Accelerator projects ask for long-term investments, emphasizing the need to preserve the European capacity for antibiotic R&D by sustaining the assets, expertise, and research infrastructures required to develop new treatments for drug-resistant infections.
The need for new antibiotics is well-recognized and on 26 September, the United Nations General Assembly will accelerate political actions in a high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance, or 'AMR'. The AMR Accelerator - a public-private partnership involving nine European projects and 98 organizations - urges government leaders and private actors to invest in the development of antibiotics and research on antimicrobial resistance. The call to action, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, emphasizes the need for coordinated action and commitments to meet the threat of antimicrobial resistance and secure a sustainable future for European antibiotic development.
The return on investment is low, and many large pharmaceutical companies have abandoned the field. According to the authors, collaboration and risk-sharing can help keep companies in anti-infective drug development. "Without a long-term funding strategy for antibiotics research and development, there is a significant risk that the AMR Accelerator's efforts t.