UK's Bioindustry Association responds to Jim O'Neill's antimicrobial resistance review

The UK Bioindustry Association (BIA) has submitted its response to Jim O’Neill’s review on antimicrobial resistance, with its chief executive saying that any new economic model must be based on an informed stewardship, not restrictive stewardship approach.

Publishing a new paper written by David Williams, CEO of BIA member Discuva Ltd, and John Wain, Professor of Microbiology, University of East Anglia and CSO, Discuva Ltd, the BIA argues that an economic model to secure new drugs is best delivered through the continuous supply of narrow spectrum antibiotics coupled to rapid diagnostics, supported by a free market remuneration model. A strategy such as this, combined with incentives and reasonable pricing for combination therapy, would encourage and drive change away from empirically-driven antibiotic monotherapy, where resistance spreads quickly and easily. This would allow protection from resistance to be controlled locally.

Steve Bates, chief executive of the BIA, said: “The O’Neill review is right to point out that the emergence and spread of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is now recognized as a major threat to medicine. The BIA welcomes the review’s analysis that there needs to be a boost to the development of new antibiotic drugs. But we want to ensure that any new economic model is based on an informed stewardship not restrictive stewardship approach”