U.K. government and Gates Foundation Fund Superbug Treatment Drive
We are in a race against superbugs, and the world urgently needs new approaches to address the rising threat of drug-resistant infections. In this direction, CARB-X, which stands for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, the world’s largest public-private partnership working on antibacterial research and development has now received sizable war chest through funding from the Gates Foundation as well as the UK Government.
CARB-X, will receive $25 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a further $26.8 million from the UK government to help it to come up with life-saving products, particularly for “vulnerable populations” in poor and middle-income countries.
Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann said the new funding will “advance the development of vaccines and novel biologics, including monoclonal antibodies, to avert drug-resistant diseases and protect the lives of children and infants, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”
Earlier CARB-X backers have included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services- $250 million over five years, as well as the Wellcome Trust ($155 million) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ($50 million).
Prof. Dame Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, said the U.K. government’s support follows concerns
expressed by the 2016 independent Review on AMR, “Through CARB-X, the U.K. government’s Global AMR Innovation Fund will be supporting research into the development of new vaccines and other life-saving products to tackle drug-resistant infections in developing countries where the burden is greatest,” she said.
