Industry gets ready for AMR revolution

It’s the most comprehensive plan in the world and sees the UK step up as one of the global leaders in this fight.

Internationally, the pharmaceutical industry have committed to continue searching for solutions. Companies across the world have agreed to work with governments to make sure:

• that antibiotics are only used by people who really need them
• they work to reduce the negative impact making antibiotics have on the environment
• they make the most of data about how antibiotics work for future science R&D
• they investigate how we can prevent infections in the first place, e.g. with vaccines

One of the biggest problem areas in the fight against AMR is the research and development of new antibiotics. The science is hard and there is a problem with the current system for funding the expensive R&D needed to tackle superbugs that are always evolving.

Antibiotics are not like other medicines, because companies are working to find new medicines that in some cases will sit on the shelf and only be used as a last resort.

This means there’s a big question mark over how we fund the research.

But the new plan from the Government is a big step forward and could have a big impact on the future of health and research.

Pharmaceutical companies have been working with the UK on different solutions to the problem of funding and we’ve finally got to a system we think will work.

In 2019, the UK will be the first country in the world to trial a new way of paying for antibiotics.

Companies are set to be paid based on the value the medicine brings to the NHS, for example whether it targets a high-priority infection, rather than for the sheer number they sell.

The pharmaceutical industry is ready and raring to go. If the UK can get this right and can build a sustainable system to fund antibiotics R&D, it could save the lives of millions of people around the world for generations.