Two experts call for renewed focus on AMR

Speaking at the launch of the AMR Centre in Alderley Park, Cheshire, two experts in the field of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) have raised concerns that research into this serious public health threat are lagging and a ‘renewed focus’ is essential.

Lord Jim O’Neill, author of a landmark report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) said that the UK government has ‘lost focus’ on the challenge over the last 18 months. He also urged big pharma to ‘do more than talk about the problem’. The executive director of the new AMR Centre, Dr Peter Jackson, revealed that the number of scientists working in the industry on AMR is down on that of last year — now fewer than 500 worldwide!

O’Neill told the audience at Alderley Park: “The UK government has played a mammoth role in getting the ball rolling on AMR all over the world but since the review, some of the intensity of focus has been lost. I hope the government rediscovers the passion for championing the AMR Centre and other initiatives that place Britain in a leading role on this issue.

“All of the talk from the big pharmaceutical companies must also now translate into action. I have seen evidence of encouraging early research and we need big pharma to take more open-minded approach and back these ideas with their own money.”

Within O’Neill’s review, which was commissioned by David Cameron when he was prime minister, it was predicted that antibiotic resistance will account for over 10 million deaths per year globally by 2050. Furthermore, it specified that if no new antibiotics are developed, the cost to the global economy of AMR would be $100 trillion by the same year.

Jackson underlined that even with the establishment of a new centre in the UK — set up to accelerate the development of new antibiotics — the number of scientists researching new antibiotic drugs in the UK is at a record low ‘with fewer than 100 researchers in industry’.

“The gravity of the problem is hard to overstate, and unless action is taken now it will claim many more lives than the 50,000 in Europe and the US, and the 700,000 lives across the world currently lost each year because of we’ve running out of effective antibiotics.

“The AMR Centre is part of the response to the crisis and will help plug the gap that has been proven to exist over the last 30 years in terms of funding, expertise and collaboration. We are now very much up and running with three programs in our laboratories and more to follow.

“In recent years, thanks to the pioneering work of Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, and Lord O’Neill, the UK has been a thought leader around antimicrobial resistance. We aim to action many of the problems they have identified and continue the drive to find new antibiotic drugs.”

The AMR Centre, which is supported by a number of backers, has developed a partnering model with SMEs to enable quick progression of research through to clinical trial so that treatments can be brought to patients as quickly as possible.