Infection Control Today: Why Antibiotic Innovation Needs Economic Rescue
In a Q&A with Infection Control Today, AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner discussed the economic challenges of antimicrobial drug development, as well as the rapidly rising global costs of AMR.
He also discussed how AMR could undermine biomedical innovation in other therapeutic areas and harm patients:
ICT: If nothing changes in the current financial model, what would be the long-term economic impact on hospitals and broader industries of a world without effective antibiotics?
HS: This is something that health economists are wrestling with, and it’s difficult to grasp because antibiotics underpin so much of modern medicine. A recent study in Cancer Medicine showed that hospitalized cancer patients are up to 2 times more likely to develop an AMR infection than hospitalized patients without cancer. So, what happens when a patient benefits from a breakthrough cancer treatment like CAR T-cell therapy, for example, but dies from an AMR infection? It’s not only tragic, but also costly.
This is the reality the world is facing, and it’s not relegated to cancer patients. We’re on the cusp of major advancements in organ xenotransplantation and gene therapies, but infections are a scourge to patients undergoing those procedures. If we do not have effective antibiotics, we will not be able to fully reap the benefits of these breakthroughs. The associated costs will harm the bottom line of hospitals and drug and medical device makers, but most importantly, the burden will be felt by patients and their families.
