Industry calls on UK government to address AMR funding gap

A collection of 36 life science organisations are calling on the UK government to address both the £500 million research funding gap and the chronic shortage of scientists working on new antibiotics.

The call comes amidst concerns over the growing impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on human health, with estimations that drug resistant infections will kill 10 million people every year by 2050, if AMR is left unchecked.

The New Drugs for Antimicrobial Resistance report, authored by Bionow, LifeArc, OneNucleus and The AMR Centre, highlights how research into AMR is being undertaken more and more by small businesses. Within big pharma, there are only six companies currently involved in antimicrobial drug development with the report calling for more market incentives.

The government’s five-year AMR strategy focused on creating a supply of safe and effective antimicrobial drugs, though the strategy is set to be revamped in 2019. The report calls for an effective work group to be formed across a range of sectors including SMEs and government, so that sustainable funding initiatives for AMR drug development are put in place.

Dr Peter Jackson, executive director of the AMR Centre, based at Alderley Park in Cheshire, said: “There’s some great new science and technologies emerging from academic research to begin addressing this grave threat to our society. Crucially, many of these are being held back by a shortage of funding to the biotech companies engaged in the testing stages of their development as new treatments.

“We have looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the UK’s current position, including mapping this pipeline of new drugs to treat AMR. We estimate there are fewer than 150 scientists working on new antibiotics in the UK - this for a problem that threatens to undermine all of modern medicine. SMEs are at the forefront of current activity in the UK, with 23 companies progressing 47 new drug programs. Whilst this shows exciting potential, the UK’s current translational capability is under invested, and not yet adequately powered to provide a sustainable pipeline of life-saving medicines to treat AMR.

“Alongside industry, the government has a key role to catalyse private investment into the SMEs in the sector. It can provide cornerstone funding for investment in R&D and introduce new market payment schemes that properly recognise the value that a new pipeline of antibiotics will bring for patients suffering from life-threatening infections caused by drug-resistant superbugs.”

Significant under-investment continues to affect companies working within the AMR pipeline, the report states. SMEs are reported to have less than £50 million in cash reserves, with all reporting companies stating that they have delayed existing and new projects due to a lack of funding. Companies have also reported that in some cases they don’t have sufficient cash reserves to meet matched funding commitments, preventing or delaying successful applications for international AMR grants. There is also a reported lack of available skilled and experienced staff, particularly in microbiology.

In the UK, only 16 programmes are currently targeting “critical priority” Gram-negative pathogens, such as drug-resistant E. coli. The report estimates that at least £200 million will be required to progress the current UK pipeline over the next five years, substantially more than the reported £47 million that companies currently have at their disposal.  

The report recommends that the government’s next five-year AMR strategy should highlight the importance of SMEs as well as the strengths and gaps in the UK’s AMR drug development capability. More so, the government should make rapid progress in implementing market reward mechanisms to address the current antibiotics reimbursement model.