North of England poised to tackle antibiotic crisis

The North of England is poised to lead research into tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), an issue deemed by the United Nations as “a fundamental threat to human health, development, security” according to Lord Jim O’Neill.

Speaking at the Bioinfect 2016 conference at Alderley Park, Cheshire, Lord Jim O’Neill spoke about the issues of AMR and how the North can help tackle the crisis. The event focused on the measures needed to replenish the diminishing stock of effective antibiotics, a problem that currently kills 700,000 people a year and is predicted to claim 10 million extra lives a year by 2050.

Recently stepping down as Treasury minister from Theresa May’s government Lord O’Neill said: “For most of the past two years of my life two things have been separately driving me. One is antimicrobial resistance. The other is the Northern Powerhouse. I am really enthusiastic about merging the two in some areas”.

Earlier this year he set up the AMR Centre, a public-private organisation based at Alderley Park to conduct and find research into new drugs and diagnostic advances as an example of how the North can help tackle the crisis.

“The idea that there can be a specialist AMR Centre right in the middle of the Northern Powerhouse is fantastic.  I will do whatever I can to support the AMR Centre here. It’s a very exciting development. It does represent genuine research. We need this. If this centre helps generate new ideas, new gram-negatives, especially, that’s the cutting edge in terms of solving this huge problem and that will attract a lot of investors, including from pharmaceutical world.

“You can build a facility anywhere. I think the edge we have in the North is the mindset. And obviously there’s the legacy of where this particular facility (Alderley Park) came from. There’s a lot of history in this part of the world with pharma. Life science is one of four areas where the North has an edge and what more could at the forefront than a centre to tackle AMR?”.

Dr Peter Jackson, chair of the steering group behind the new AMR Centre spoke about the support: “We are in a rapidly evolving crisis and there’s a great emphasis on the move from policy to action.  In the summer we joined the world’s largest public-private partnership - CARB-X - that will rejuvenate the pipeline of anti-microbial drugs and diagnostics.  Since then we have received over 350 enquiries about support for projects in this area.”

Chris Doherty, managing director of Alderley Park, said: “The geographical scope of the AMR problem is unlimited and its consequences are devastating. The North of England has always been a place of innovation and discovery and has a very strong AMR cluster in the form of the AMR Centre, Evotec, Blueberry Therapeutics, Absynth Biologics and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Further afield, there’s QuantuMDx, Demuris and OJ-Bio.”

Lord O’Neill recognised his review team’s achievements regarding AMR, including getting the issue on the agenda at the G20 summit chaired by China in September. Next year the summit will be held in Germany and AMR will continue to be recognised as a priority.

Lord O’Neill said: “There is defined focus on working up a new model for support for new drugs in this area. The UN declaration in September is also a stand out moment. It’s only the fourth time in history of UN there’s been a high level declaration about health.  I like to describe that declaration as the end of the beginning – it was a really important moment.”