Health Europa Quarterly Issue 21 Explores AMR

Health Europa Quarterly has published its twenty-first issue which features AMR, as well as the AMR Industry Alliance’s Progress Report, acknowledging “the urgent need to facilitate a sustainable market for new antibiotics,” and that “the global AMR crisis can only be tackled through high level, cohesive action.”

From the article, “Progress being made on AMR, but marketplace reforms needed” (page 48-49):

“Antimicrobial resistance – the evolution of disease-causing microbes to evade antibiotics – is one of the most significant public health challenges facing the world today. A recent study published in The Lancet found that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was associated with 4.95 million deaths in 2019, comparable to the devastating human loss caused by COVID-19, which has claimed nearly six million lives in the two years since the pandemic began.

While there are numerous ways to help tackle the emergence and spread of AMR, and actors across all sectors are making important changes, greater action is needed – and on a global scale. To help further understanding and serve as a catalyst for action, over one hundred biotech, diagnostics, generics and research-based pharmaceutical companies and associations formed the AMR Industry Alliance.

The Alliance’s mission is to harness the power of the life sciences industries and curb AMR through its bold set of shared goals and commitments. This involves the promotion of greater therapeutic and diagnostic innovation to prevent, diagnose and treat infections; addressing barriers to patient access to treatments; encouraging the appropriate use of antibiotics; and advancing responsible manufacturing of these drugs.”

In addition to AMR Industry Alliance, Health Europa Quarterly includes insights from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) Alliance who discuss progress made regarding antibiotic use in the sector and the critical role of data in shaping meaningful targets, as well as the MEP Interest Group on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Read about our Progress Report and the work that our members are doing in the fight against AMR in Health Europa Quarterly on page 48-49 of the issue here.