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By Kate Kelland
LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Drug companies are not making
progress against the spread of antibiotic resistance at a scale
and speed great enough to tackle the global health threat posed
by superbugs, a key benchmark analysis found on Tuesday.
The findings of a second Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
Benchmark report showed that while a few pharmaceutical
companies are expanding their efforts, change is not happening
at the scale needed to radically impact the problem.
Antibiotic and antifungal resistance is estimated to kill
35,900 people in the United States alone each year. In the
European Union and European Economic Area, data show that
antimicrobial resistance accounts for at least 17% of
infections, and leads to 33,000 deaths each year.
In India, drug resistance exceeds 70% for many widespread
bacteria, the AMR report said.
Compared to 2018, the pipeline of new drugs in development
to combat bacterial and fungal infections remains small, with
only 51 potential treatments in late-stage clinical trials, the
2020 report found.
And only a handful more clinical-stage antibiotics are being
developed with integral plans to make them available to those
who need them most, but only use them wisely and sparingly.
"This second benchmark provides a reality check," said
Jayasree Iyer, executive director of the Access to Medicine
Foundation, which publishes the biennial AMR Benchmark report.
"The progress we see is being overshadowed by our increasing
reliance on just a handful of companies."
Drug resistance is driven by the misuse and overuse of
antibiotics and other antimicrobials, which encourages bacteria
to evolve to survive by finding new ways to beat the medicines.
But the low profitability of antibiotics means that only a
dwindling number of pharmaceutical companies still invest in
developing and manufacture them.
The 2020 AMR Benchmark report said that since 2018, two more
companies – Novartis and Sanofi – have
retreated from new antibiotics research and development (R&D),
while two more have filed for bankruptcy.
Tim Jinks, a specialist in drug-resistance at the Wellcome
Trust global health charity, said the findings pointed to a
"tipping point in the manufacturing of new antibiotics - with
progress hanging by a thread."
"Drug-resistant infections are one of the greatest global
public health threats of our time," he said. "The pace of change
does not match the scale of the challenge."
The report identified three drug companies - GSK,
Entasis and Cipla – as leaders in
antimicrobial R&D, and said they were "followed closely by a few
strong performers", including Pfizer and Johnson &
Johnson.
Iyer warned, however, that the world should not take these
firms' commitment for granted.
The AMR Benchmark measures 30 companies with interests in
the anti-infectives market, including multinational pharma
companies, biotechnology firms and generics makers.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; editing by Mark Potter)
