UK launches fresh fight against antimicrobial resistance

The UK prime minister David Cameron has said he wants Britain to lead the way in the battle against antimicrobial resistance.

Growing numbers of bacterial and viral infections are resistant to antimicrobial drugs, but no new classes of antibiotics have come on the market for more than 25 years. Around 25,000 people already die each year from infections resistant to antibiotic drugs in Europe alone and the lack of new drugs which are capable of fighting bacteria has been described by the World Health Organization as one of the most significant global risks facing modern medicine.

Mr Cameron has commissioned an independent review, led by the internationally renowned economist Jim O’Neill and co-funded and hosted by the world’s second largest medical research foundation, the Wellcome Trust, to explore the economic issues surrounding antimicrobial resistance. The review will set out a plan for encouraging and accelerating the discovery and development of new generations of antibiotics, and will examine: