Europe’s €56.5M Funding , Global Efforts Against Antibiotic Resistance
In a major step forward in the fight against the global health risk that antibiotic resistance presents, the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) has now received a whopping €56.5 million in funding to help develop new treatments to fight against to fight the global threat.
The investment was led by Germany, which will contribute with €51.35m and is co-financed by the governments of The Netherlands (€2m), the UK (€1.1m), Switzerland €440,000, South Africa €390,000, Luxembourg (100,000), Monaco (N.A.), and the British Wellcome Trust (€1.1m).
The non-profit was founded last summer by the World Health Organisation and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) to fight sexually-transmitted Infections, neonatal sepsis, and to develop antibiotics for adults and children able to break antibiotic resistance.
GARDP plans to collaborate with CARB-X, the currently largest private public partnership funded by the US government and the Wellcome Trust to bolster preclinical antibiotics programmes.
The funding will majorly be supporting the organisation’s Antimicrobial Memory Recovery and Exploratory programme. The Memory Recovery programme will engage more than 100 world-class experts in its bid to recoup essential knowledge and lost memory of abandoned antibiotic development projects to help
identify new drug opportunities.The other three areas the funding is expected to make contributions to are the non-profits’ Sexually-transmitted Infections, Neonatal Sepsis, and the Paediatric Antibiotic Platforms.
Dr Manica Balasegaram, Director of GARDP, said: “GARDP is extremely grateful for this significant funding. With this support we can take concrete strides in making our vision a reality, reaching our goal of delivering up to four new treatments by 2023, and striving to improve the lives of all patients who need affordable and effective new antibiotics.” By 2023, the GARDP would need at least €270m in funding to achieve predefined goals.
Jeremy Farrar, Wellcome’s Director, said: “We must all work together to address the deadly threat of drug-resistant infections, which already kill 700,000 people a year. Wellcome is delighted to work with Germany and other partners to ensure communities around the world are better protected against this and other serious health threats.”
Netherland’s Health Minister Edith Schipperssaid: “We know that the current business models for the development of new antibiotics do not work. We have to work on new models that result in relevant and affordable products that are used in a responsible way. Let’s hope that others will join soon: it is time to walk the talk.” Steve Brine, the UK‘s Health Minister added: “AMR is the biggest global health threat we face and we know infections don’t respect borders so a united international effort is essential. The UK warmly welcomes Germany’s leadership on AMR through its G20 Presidency, and we will play an active role in supporting these and other initiatives“ South Africa’s MRC President Glenda Graystressed that antibiotic resistance would „require a collective sense of urgency to invigorate public-private partnerships as a plan to prevent us from losing control over the situation.”
