As we embark upon World Antibiotic Awareness Week and European Antibiotic Awareness Day, EFPIA, EBE, Vaccines Europe, their member companies and associations reiterate their commitment to combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across the globe.

AMR remains a major public health threat, with a potentially costing 10 million lives every year worldwide by 2050.  Acknowledged in the WHO Global Action Plan, the UN High Level Meeting declaration, the G7 and G20 meetings, and the European Commission’s Roadmap on a “One Health” Approach, AMR is a critical global issue that requires proactive and coordinated action. We remain convinced that this is an area in which the EU can and should take a leading role by proposing concrete and innovative solutions to benefit patients worldwide and encourage the use of preventive options, including vaccines.

The research-based bio pharmaceutical and vaccines sectors are determined to play a key role in tackling AMR. In line with the spirit of the Davos Declaration of January 2016, and the subsequent Industry Roadmap from September 2016, our industry reiterates its support for a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to this critical issue, in the clear knowledge that industry has a crucial role to play in the “One Health Network”. Our continued view is that only through concerted action across all sectors and stakeholders can we find ultimately effective solutions to this life-threatening problem. 

EFPIA President Dr. Stefan Oschmann acknowledged that addressing all the facets of AMR will require sustained, collaboration between all stakeholders, including governments, human and animal health industries, healthcare professionals, environmental experts, farmers and patients. Only a collaborative approach will allow us to make significant inroad in the many common areas, including pharmaceuticals in the environment, antibiotic stewardship, vaccination and rapid diagnostics.

“I’m convinced that we can tackle AMR successfully if all stakeholders work together,” Dr. Oschmann said.

We remain committed to measures aimed at reducing the environmental impact resulting from the production of antibiotics. We have initiated several health-based commitments and are working through the AMR Alliance, the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) and our Eco-Pharmaco-Stewardship (EPS) joint-initiative with the associations representing the European generics, biosimilar and self-care manufacturers, to develop concrete solutions. Industry stands ready for dialogue with all stakeholders responsible for the environment to elaborate an environmental monitoring approach. Together with other actors we also continue to work on tackling the improper disposal of expired and unused antibiotics, through the #medsdisposal campaign.

Within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, EFPIA, EBE and Vaccines Europe are also supporting an extensive framework of European collaborative projects (pharmaceutical industry and academia), which address the challenges of antibiotic resistance. These projects form the New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) programme and focus on key challenges to the discovery and development of new agents, designed to prevent and treat resistant bacterial infections.