Following the news on March 14, 2019 that Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has committed €40 million to CARB-X for early development of antibiotics,

Paul Jeng, PhD, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on global efforts to combat the threat of antibiotics resistance:

“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a principal challenge in modern medicine and one of the most pressing threats to global health in the 21^st century. Although largely attributed to misuse or overuse of antibiotic medications, problems with AMR are also linked to a lack of new drug development by pharmaceutical companies due to low revenue margins for antibiotics as a class.

“CARB-X falls into the ‘push incentive’ model for antibiotic development funding of the experimental antibiotics pipeline in the absence of traditional market forces. Initially launched in 2016 as an enterprise of the US government, the global venture has steadily extended its reach to the UK and India while partnering with philanthropic foundations like the Wellcome Trust. The recent addition of support from the German government represents a further push across borders, positioning CARB-X as a sustainable source of investment for novel antibiotics development for years to come.

“Most importantly, in order to effectively reduce the emergence of AMR, accelerated research and development efforts must occur in concert with improved infection surveillance and coordinated antimicrobial stewardship. Experts have also proposed value-based pricing for antibiotics to incentivize commercial product development for smaller groups of patients, such as those affected by drug-resistant infections.”