British biotech calls for faster regulatory process to tackle AMR threat

Matoke Holdings has called on Government to provide a fast-track process to get new drugs to market to combat the global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), at a meeting of key parliamentarians.

Representing small and medium-sized companies, Ian Staples, Chief Executive of British biotech Matoke Holdings, called on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee to help ensure that life-saving drugs can get through the regulatory process faster. The Committee was taking evidence as part of its ‘Life Sciences and the Industrial Strategy’ inquiry.

Staples, a former Managing Director of high street retail giant Halfords, told the Committee that long-term, end-to-end support for small biotech businesses is needed to help smaller British companies innovate to tackle key global challenges. Commenting on Sir John Bell’s recent Life Sciences Strategy – a landmark deal for the life sciences sector – Staples said the plan must go further to provide end-to-end support through the regulatory process, from the laboratory to the NHS, for small biotech firms. He added that the costs and timescales involved in completing the regulatory process represent a significant barrier to innovation.

Staples outlined to the Committee the challenges faced by SMEs in bringing much needed innovative technology through the regulatory process to the market to tackle AMR. The regulatory challenge contributes to a significant gap between the antimicrobial pipeline and health needs: there are around only 17 SMEs currently working on developing new drugs to combat antimicrobial resistance in the UK and there have been no new antibiotics for the last 30 years.

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, has described the global threat of AMR as an “antibiotic apocalypse”, as infections evolve to build up resistance against life-saving drugs. This year, AMR will kill 70,000 people worldwide, and the World Health Organization predicts that 10 million people will die annually by 2050 if a solution is not found.

Ian Staples, Chief Executive of Matoke Holdings said:  

Antimicrobial resistance is a global crisis, and more must be done to get new antibiotics quickly and effectively through the regulatory process to tackle this. The Government must take action to ensure clear pathways for small innovative British businesses to bring life-saving treatments out of the laboratory and into the NHS.