Antimicrobial resistance is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest threats facing public health today.
The highly complex issue is already behind an estimated 700,000 deaths each year and that figure is predicted to rise to 10 million by 2050 if action is not taken.
So when leaders in the field like Prof Dame Sally Davies tell industry and government that “we’re all going to have to do better”, it should be a wake-up call for all stakeholders.
Addressing a media briefing earlier this year, the UK’s chief medical officer did note that, although progress has been slow, advances have been made in the field.
In this month’s PME Dr Peter Jackson from the AMR Centre, which plays a key role in the UK’s response, gives us a rundown on the state of antimicrobial resistance across the world and the pharmaceutical industry’s response to this.
Certainly, our sector has just begun to break the decades-long draught in new antibiotics, but so far with only a trickle rather than a flood of new drugs. Consequently, providing economic incentives to re-orientate research decisions will be one vital element of tackling the problem.
For all our sakes, we should hope that the economic conundrum, not to mention all of the other pieces to this puzzle, can be fitted together.
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