The BIA today welcomes the release of the AMR Industry Alliance’s first progress report assessing the action being taken to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

The AMR Industry Alliance is a coalition of over 100 biotechnology, diagnostic, generics and research-based biopharmaceutical companies and trade associations that was formed to drive and measure industry progress to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The AMR Industry Alliance ensures that signatories collectively deliver on the specific commitments made in the Industry Declaration on AMR and the Roadmap and measures progress made in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Highlights from the report include data showing that 22 Alliance companies invested at least $2bn in R&D dedicated to AMR-related products in 2016. In addition, two out of three Alliance companies surveyed with marketed AMR products have strategies, policies or plans in place to improve access to their AMR-relevant products.

“It is fantastic to see the steps that industry has taken to tackle one of the world’s most pressing public health challenges. There is a great deal of promising science being undertaken in the UK on AMR, but a lack of pull incentives is still preventing significant venture capital investment. This barrier must be removed to enable biotech companies to do more in this field. I hope to see movement from policymakers in this area in 2018.”

This first progress report has aggregated data from 36 companies from all four categories represented in the Alliance: all research-based biopharmaceutical companies (11 out of 11), half of the generics (3 out of 6), one third of diagnostics members (5 out of 15), and one quarter (17 out of 68) of SMEs provided input. The Alliance is committed to reporting progress every two years. It is also dedicated to refining its approach to better address the challenges for its members in responding, so that it can achieve greater participation than seen in this first report.