To mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, Contagion Live published an interview with AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner that touched on numerous topics, including the importance of WAAW and the need for policy reforms to stimulate private investment.
Contagion: As resistance continues to outpace new drug development, what innovations—scientific, regulatory, or behavioral—do you think could most effectively curb the rise of antimicrobial resistance over the next decade?
Skinner: First, we need to replenish the pipeline of antibiotics in development with truly innovative therapies. That means antibiotics with new mechanisms of action that hit new targets and that are effective against the most difficult-to-treat pathogens. As the recent World Health Organization pipeline analysis showed, the current pipeline is too thin, it is shrinking, and it is nearly devoid of innovation. That’s troubling, especially from an investor’s point of view. If we want to bring investment back into antibiotics, there needs to be novel, innovative therapies in which to invest.
Second, we need a transformative diagnostic test. In my opinion, that would be a low-cost point-of-care diagnostic that tells the clinician what antibiotics the pathogen is susceptible to within 15 minutes. That would be a game changer both in terms of improving patient outcomes and enhancing antibiotic stewardship practices.
That said, I’m not sure how optimistic I am that we’ll see the necessary innovation on the drug or diagnostic side in the next decade, especially given the persistent lack of investment into AMR.
On the regulatory front, we need regulatory authorities across the globe to align and simplify the approval processes to make access faster and more affordable. Once a drug has been approved by more than one stringent regulatory authority, which is identified by the WHO and includes the US FDA, the UK MHRA, and the European Union authorities, other countries should make approval simple and efficient. Furthermore, post-approval obligations, such as the requirement to study the newly approved drug in pediatric patients should be aligned so that the studies do not need to be repeated in multiple jurisdictions.
On the behavioral side, I wish patients and physicians would discuss the use of antibiotics so that the over-prescription of antibiotics can be dramatically reduced. Physicians, PAs, and nurses need time to engage with patients on what are the best choices for their care and recovery. There is much we can do to ensure that antibiotics are properly dispensed and used as prescribed.
Read the full interview here.