We are commercial rivals, but we’re united in the recognition that, while Covid-19 holds center stage today, another potentially devastating pandemic is looming, and a joint effort by biopharmaceutical companies is needed to address it. Antimicrobial resistance is a growing health threat that kills some 35,000 Americans and 700,000 people globally each year, with world-wide deaths projected at 10 million annually in 30 years.
Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” have evolved to resist antibiotic medicines, leaving the world almost as vulnerable as it was before the discovery of penicillin. We rely on the availability of effective antibiotics to treat patients with conditions ranging from root canals and cancer to Covid-related infections—leaving nearly every aspect of our health system at risk. As insulin developers and manufacturers, we are particularly concerned for the 34.2 million Americans with diabetes, who are highly vulnerable to infections that can be lethal without effective antibiotics.
Unfortunately, few companies produce antibiotics that fight superbugs. That must change, which is why 20 leading pharmaceutical companies have formed the $1 billion AMR Action Fund to combat antimicrobial resistance by supporting the development of new antibiotics.
Despite the threat of AMR, new antibiotics are used sparingly to slow the development of resistance. While this makes sense for public health, it doesn’t create a viable marketplace. This leaves only a few antibiotic candidates languishing in the pipeline, while developers, confronted with the high cost of drug development, scramble for financing. In recent years, several antibiotic-focused biotechs have declared bankruptcy or exited the field.
What we urgently need now is collective leadership, from both industry and governments, to solve the antibiotic innovation challenge and ensure that we have effective medications.
In 2018 Novo Holdings launched the Repair Impact Fund (an acronym for Replenishing and Enabling the Pipeline for Anti-Infective Resistance) to invest $165 million in companies involved in early-stage development of therapies targeting resistant micro-organisms. Similar investments, including the $500 million CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria) initiative—led by Boston University and funded by the U.S. government and the Wellcome Trust, among others—have revitalized the early-stage pipeline and created several promising approaches. But these efforts face a lack of investors willing to shoulder the high costs and risks of the complex and expensive later stages of development. Without funding and partnership today, and the prospect of some return tomorrow, these products will wither on the vine.
Recognizing this gap, the AMR Action Fund was formed by nearly two dozen leading pharma manufacturers and will support development of the most promising antibiotics. The fund has set an initial goal to bring up to four new drugs to patients by 2030. The fund can’t solve the challenge alone; success requires that governments make the necessary policy reforms to enable a sustainable antibiotic pipeline and marketplace.
Encouragingly, two bipartisan policy proposals have been introduced in Congress. The Disarm Act of 2019 would increase federal reimbursement for new antibiotics. The Pasteur Act of 2020 would give qualified new antibiotic makers a guaranteed reimbursement level.
Millions of lives could be at stake without new antibiotics, and decades of progress in modern medicine could be squandered. The AMR Action Fund buys time that we can’t afford to waste on inaction. The private sector is stepping up in an unprecedented way. It is time for policy makers to take the bold actions needed to prevent another pandemic.
Mr. Ricks is chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly & Co. Mr. Kutay is CEO of Novo Holdings A/S.
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