Increased financial incentives and international collaborations are needed to tackle superbugs, says GlobalData

Published: 3-Feb-2016

One approach could be to incentivise the industry without directly paying companies for their R&D, such as uptake-independent payments


Around 80 pharmaceutical firms declared their commitment to combat superbugs at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but increased international collaboration and further financial incentives are required to fight the mounting threat posed by multidrug-resistant bacteria, says consultancy firm GlobalData.

According to Mirco Junker, Global Data's analyst covering infectious diseases, the current economic framework has stifled innovative research and development (R&D) in this field, and has led to major pharmaceutical companies retreating from developing new antimicrobials. But he said the recent declaration will allow for innovative and collaborative approaches that would otherwise be considered economically unfeasible.

'There are various ways this may be countered so that the new declaration may be fulfilled, such as uptake-independent payments or prolonged protection from generic erosion for developers,' Junker says. 'Moreover, the development of vaccines against infectious diseases that are currently only being treated with antimicrobials could be encouraged by the guarantee of reimbursement once the vaccine qualifies under predetermined conditions.'

Ambitious collaborations between governments, international organisations, companies, and charitable foundations are certainly possible

Another approach could be to incentivise the industry without directly paying companies for their R&D, by improving the funding of supranational collaborations between for-profit and non-profit organisations, says GlobalData.

'Ambitious collaborations between governments, international organisations, companies, and charitable foundations are certainly possible, as exemplified by the remarkable success of the vaccine MenAfriVac, which nearly eliminated the prevalence of invasive serogroup A meningococcal disease in 26 Sub-Saharan countries,' adds Junker.

But these partnerships are a delicate balancing act. 'They must be forged carefully in order to minimise the economic risks for drug developers, while also presenting incentives, and they should also not completely shift the inherent risk of novel antibiotic R&D from the pharmaceutical industry to academia or non-profits,' he says.

Junker concludes that if the threat of antimicrobial resistance is to be effectively managed, a combination of scientific, regulatory, and economic reforms on the international level will need to be leveraged.

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