Commitments
The signatory companies are already actively engaged in combating AMR as appropriate to their business. We stand ready to work in partnership with leading countries to deliver sustainable solutions to meet this global challenge. We invite other companies to join this Declaration and comments from all other stakeholders are welcome. We will review and update the Declaration every 2 years, to reflect progress and changing priorities.
Work to reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance
In January 2016, the life-sciences industry signed a Declaration on Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance at the World Economic Forum,
Followed by a Roadmap of several big pharma at the UN High-Level Meeting in September 2016 – a common framework of principles for global measures to curb the development of antibiotic resistance.
The “AMR Industry Alliance”, launched in May 2017, now links these two initiatives together and ensures that the signatories collectively deliver on the commitments made.
Invest in R&D to meet public health needs
with new innovative diagnostics & treatments
We are investing in a range of innovative antibiotics, vaccines, alternative technologies, and diagnostics for resistant infections. We are advancing our pipelines, but more work and investment into multiple approaches is needed to overcome the significant scientific difficulties of antibiotic discovery.
We support new ways of working such as open collaborations between industry and public researchers to overcome the scientific challenges of creating new antibiotics and diagnostics. Collaborative public-private projects already demonstrate what we can achieve together, but more can be done: several companies co-established the New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) programme as part of IMI with the European Commission and others are actively engaging in collaborations funded in the US by BARDA and the NIH.
We will continue to support research in academia and SMEs on new and re-purposed antibiotics. We welcome proposals to increase investment via coordinated global routes in efforts to develop useful diagnostics, antibiotics, vaccines, and alternative technologies.
As acknowledged, the value assigned to antibiotics and diagnostics often does not reflect the investment required for their creation or the benefits they bring to society, and we stand ready to work with payers and policymakers on new valuation mechanisms and commercial models that specifically address the unique challenges of this market.
Improve access to high-quality antibiotics and
ensuring that new ones are available to all
As part of the WHO Global Action Plan’s proposal for a comprehensive program of sanitation, hygiene, vaccination, infection control, education, and stewardship, we support mechanisms to ensure affordable access to new and existing antibiotics to the patients who need them, in all parts of the world and at all levels of income.
We recognise the success of programmes to improve global access to drugs in HIV, TB, and malaria and call for a similar collaborative effort to address issues of access to antibiotics.