Jim O’Neills Review on Antimicrobial Resistance launches their third interim report. Amongst the report’s recommendations is the creation of a $2 billion global fund to be spent over 5 years to assist organisations pay for their R&D on developing new antibiotics. Grants will be awarded from this fund which will delink the reward side of antibiotic drug development from sales and should incentivise organisations to get back into the antibiotic development space. Global fund monies will be used to finance blue skies research into new antibiotics and diagnostics and encourage innovative partnerships at early development stages between academia and industry.
Antibiotic Research UK, the world’s first charity created to develop new antibiotics welcomes this latest O’Neill report and endorses whole heartedly its recommendations. One of the problems in the field is that there has been a lack of money to finance antibiotic drug development, and was one of the reasons for the charity’s formation. Professor Colin Garner, the charity’s Chief Executive says ‘the creation of a new global fund with substantial resource will kick-start antibiotic drug development. However the problem lies not only in funding but also a lack of new ideas. Our charity, with some of the UK’s top researchers in antibiotic resistance behind us, aims to develop its first new antibiotic therapy by 2020. To do this requires funding. I hope very much that some of the monies from the new global fund will flow through to us so we can speed up our research programme on Antibiotic Resistance Breakers’.
Antibiotic Research UK is funded by public donation and hopes to replace the hole left by many of the big pharmaceutical companies who have withdrawn from antibiotic drug development. The charity needs to raise up to £30 million, through a combination of traditional fundraising, corporate sponsorship, trusts and foundations as well as newer fundraising methods such as crowd funding over the next five years.
About Antibiotic Research UK
Antibiotic Research UK is the world’s first charity to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistant infection. We aim to develop one new antibiotic therapy by 2020 with further antibiotics being introduced over the next decade. To reach our goals we need to raise £30 million over the next 5-7 years. Antibiotic Research UK has the support of some of the United Kingdom’s leading scientific and clinical experts in antibiotic resistance, drawn from 14 of the country’s top universities and 12 specialty pharmaceutical or support companies.
The problem of antibiotic resistance (superbugs) has been highlighted by the World Health Organisation, the UK Prime Minister, the President of the USA, the UK Chief Medical Officer and Jim O’Neill, chair of the Government’s Review of Antimicrobial Resistance. David Cameron talked about medicine going back to the ‘dark ages’ if we didn’t tackle this impending health disaster. Antibiotic Research UK is a registered charity and is uniquely placed to develop new therapies which would be made available to all affected by antibiotic resistant infections throughout the world.
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