Independent comparison of pharma companies’ efforts to tackle drug resistance published

The Access to Medicine Foundation has published an independent analysis of the efforts made by pharma companies to address the issue of drug resistant infections.

In the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark, it was revealed that GSK and Johnson & Johnson are leading the large research-based companies, with Mylan in front position out of the generics’ manufacturers and Entasis ahead of the other biotechs. However, the benchmark also noted that there is room for improvement in all those evaluated.

“If we don't use antibiotics in the right doses or for the right bugs, we risk giving bacteria a chance to adapt and strengthen their defences, which will make it harder to kill them the next time. The threat that once-deadly infections could again become life-threatening is intensifying,” emphasized Jayasree K. Iyer, executive director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, which publishes the Benchmark. “Pharmaceutical companies have a critical contribution to make to the effort to tackle superbugs.”

Measuring the 30 most active companies in antimicrobial development and production, including multinational pharma companies, biotechs and generics’ manufacturers, the benchmark compares how each company is responding to the threat of drug resistant infections. The main areas tracked are: R&D for new antimicrobials, policies for ensuring antibiotics are manufactured responsibly, and approaches to ensure antimicrobials are accessible and used wisely. Information was gathered and cross-checked from multiple sources.

“While pharmaceutical companies are addressing AMR, for most of them, this is only the start. Yes, there are important new medicines in the pipeline — but it is widely accepted that there are not enough to replace the ones that no longer work. The benchmark uncovered a few very good examples of companies addressing access and stewardship for individual products,” Iyer said.

The Benchmark's key findings include:

• There are 28 antibiotics in later stages of development that target the pathogens deemed critical AMR priorities by the WHO and/or US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, only two of these 28 candidates are supported by plans to ensure they can be both made accessible and used wisely if they reach the market.
• Nearly half of companies evaluated are involved in efforts to track patterns in drug resistance, with AMR surveillance programmes of different scales running in 147 countries. Pneumonia is the most widely tracked infection. Pfizer is running the most programmes.
• Eight companies are setting limits on the concentration of antibiotics that manufacturing wastewaters can contain before they can be released into the environment. Four companies require suppliers to also meet these standards: GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Roche. More information is needed on what these limits are and no company reveals what is released in practice.
• Four companies are taking steps to separate sales agent's bonuses from the volume of antibiotics they sell. GSK and Shionogi have fully separated the two globally, Pfizer is piloting that approach in certain locations, and Novartis is in the process of adjusting the incentives for its sales teams.