CIDRAP reported that a bipartisan group of five members of the US House of Representatives reintroduced the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act.
According to CIDRAP, the legislation would create a payment model under which the federal government would sign a subscription-style contract with pharmaceutical companies that develop critically needed new antibiotics and antifungals. The companies would receive fixed annual payments from the government, ranging from $75 million to $300 million per year, base don how innovative their product is, how much it contributes to patient care, and how beneficial it is for public health.
AMR Action Fund CEO provided a comment to CIDRAP, underscoring the need to incentivize private investors.
“Restoring a functional and predictable market is essential to rekindling private investment in this lifesaving field of medicine,” Henry Skinner, PhD, of the AMR Action Fund said in an emailed statement. “Without meaningful progress on policy reform, we are likely to see more biotechnology companies developing urgently needed antibiotics fail this year, not because the science falls short, but because the broken market offers no way to sustain success.”
Read the full CIDRAP article here.