Economist Pharma Summit: BRIC countries must be at forefront of AMR fight, says Jim O'Neill

Jim O'Neill, chair of the UK government's review on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), spoke of the need to center developing countries in any strategy in his session on the economic cost of AMR at the Economist Pharma Summit in London today.

The role of the review is to look at AMR from an economic perspective, and to recommend specific actions to tackle it. The themes of the review are addressing the impact of AMR on world economic output, conserve existing antimicrobials and tapping into advances in diagnostics and surveillance. The review also looks at how to stimulate development of new therapies in the field, and how to consider alternative therapies such as vaccines. The final theme Dr O'Neill highlighted in his session was the need for cohesive international action, which is particularly significant considering, as he stated, that the total GDP loss from AMR will stand at 1.3 times today's total global GDP. There is, he said, "no chance" of resolving the resistance issue without putting Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries), at the center of the solution.

Models from the review showed that by 2050 there will be 10 million deaths per year due to the most common drug-resistant infections.

Dr O'Neill cited the under-funding of AMR research as a key reason behind the problem, and proposed suggestions such as government-incentivized postgraduate research in the field, and an innovation fund for industry which he proposed would need to be "no more than $2 billion." In an industry landscape where AMR is a low priority, he cited Merck's (NYSE: MRK) acquisition of Cubist (Nasdaq: CBST), a specialist in the antimicrobial area, as being a promising sign of commercial interest.

The real challenge is how to encourage big pharma to create more products they cannot sell at a high price, but for which there is a huge unmet need, he concluded.