The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) has called upon governments across the world to put in place R&D incentives for biopharmaceutical companies developing ways to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Antibiotic resistance
IFPMA has stated that there is an urgent need for governments to adopt a number of measures to reinvigorate the antimicrobial pipeline. Funding or rewarding research inputs and outputs is vital if the biopharmaceutical industry is to continue to invest in new medicines and vaccines that address AMR.
The organisation is recommending three action areas for governments to implement, including:
- Continue to support incentives that help “de-risk” early stage R&D (“push incentives”)
- Increased support novel mechanisms that help companies ensure a predictable return for new medicines (“pull incentives”)
- Adapt reimbursement procedures to better capture the value novel antibiotics bring to patients, healthcare systems and society.
In 2016, companies invested at least $2 billion in R&D to counter AMR, a figure which is hardly enough according to the AMR Industry Alliance’s progress report.
“Antibiotic R&D is not for the faint-hearted. It is one of the toughest innovation environments, with only a fraction of pre-clinical targets ultimately being proven safe and effective enough to make it to the market”, Thomas Cueni, IFPMA director-general. “Current market conditions make it very difficult for companies to sustain their investments. Without changes to reimbursement, valuation mechanisms and ultimately commercial models, nearly one-third of all responding companies[1], including half of all large R&D biopharmaceutical companies, report that they will likely decrease their investments in antimicrobial R&D. We therefore urge governments to form a ‘coalition of the willing’ that will pilot novel economic models that will influence the development and availability of tools to tackle antimicrobial resistance”.
IFPMA is arguing for governments to create market conditions where this a sustainable return on investments, helping to stimulate R&D from discovery through to development.