A four pronged approach to combat the AMR menace

The AMR Industry Alliance has over 100 life science companies and associations across 20 countries who are working with key global stakeholders to address the AMR (Antimicrobial resistance) menace. They launched the first progress report on January 18, 2018 with the objective of identifying the best practices, opportunities as well as gaps that would need to be further plugged by industry and stakeholders. The report analyzed the advances made in the below 4 key areas and here’s what they found:

Manufacturing and environment When antibiotic manufacturing factories are unable to manage their manufacturing discharges, the threat of AMR looms large at this stage itself. These residual antibiotics find their way to land, food and water and contaminate the environment as a whole. Lack of regulatory inspection, common national & international standards for environmental discharge of effluents, challenges in technology bandwidth have all contributed to the problem. While the Roadmap signatories are addressing these issues, the AMR industry Alliance has also suggested further measures:

  Building a common framework to manage antibiotic discharge
  Establishing & enforcing good practices in controlled release of antibiotics into the environment
  To have supply chain systems to meet the roadmap standards
  To get more pharmaceutical industries to sign up to the Roadmap.

Appropriate Use

It’s an accepted fact that AMR is inevitable; however when humans & animals consume antibiotics inappropriately, it only ends up accelerating the process.
The AMR has adopted this slogan to promote appropriate usage of antimicrobials: "The right patient receiving the right drug at the right dose in the right formulation at the right time for the right duration for the right pathogen and site of infection".And they have also met success in this regard:

  Over 80% of all members have formal strategies and activities to promote appropriate use.
  90% of respondents are either planning to, or are currently collecting or support the collection of surveillance data to monitor antibiotics usage.
  Over half the respondents are engaged in stewardship education activities including to explain responsible antibiotics usage and removing sales based incentives.
  Developing vaccines for high burden diseases will also reduce the impact of AMR.

Research & Science:

The biggest challenge is that because of AMR, treating bacterial pathogens leaves physicians with fewer & fewer options for treatment. One of the solutions is to develop newer products as well as the below initiatives.

  Over 2 billion annually in AMR relevant R & D are being vested by Alliance members.
  Catch them early; that’s the motto followed by Alliance members who are targeting early stage research in bacteria as well as adopting novel, non antibiotic approaches to address AMR.
  A more collaborative approach between biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic as well working with academia & national governments for new drug discovery.

Access:

The fact that the common man is able to gain access to antibiotics calls for applause. Alliance members want to ensure that this access does not turn into excess by the following ways:

  Over 88% are engaged in dialogues with external stakeholders to ensure appropriate access to AMR relevant products.
  Nearly half the respondents have strategies in place to reduce the prevalence of substandard or falsified products.