Reinvigorating the Antibiotic Pipeline

John Mohr, PharmD, president and founder of Medical Affairs Strategic Solutions, LLC, discusses global and national initiatives for the development of new antibiotics.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“There’s a lot of movement at the global level for the development of new antibiotics, from the World Health Organization, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and recognition that we certainly have a problem that needs to be fixed. It truly is a market failure for why these new, life-saving drugs aren’t being developed. There are incentives that are being proposed in order to attempt to try to reinvigorate the antibiotic pipeline.

There are in general two categories, either a push incentive, to provide reasons for companies to get back in the space, or pull incentives in order to pull the drug through and establish a market for those therapies. A recent report came out from Jim O’Neill, [which] outlined additional steps in order to improve the antibiotic pipeline. Additionally, there’s legislation that’s being passed in the United States, the GAIN Act, as well as other pending legislation, such as the DISARM act, the PATH act, and the READI act, which would all provide additional types of incentives in order to promote the development of new antimicrobials.

A lot of work is being done at the global level, and more needs to be done in order to ensure that we have access to these life-saving drugs.”