Dive Brief:
- Citing the high cost of devleoping antibiotics aimed at treating drug-resistant infections, Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers anticipates the creation of a multinational fund at the upcoming G7 meeting in June, Reuters reports.
- According to Dekkers, creating four new antibiotics will cost roughly $22.4 billion—too much for any one country or entity to take on given the supply and demand dynamics of these drugs.
- The World Health Organization has deemed the precipitous increase in drug-resistant superbugs "the single greatest challenge in infectious diseases."
Dive Insight:
Multi-drug resistant pathogens have become a serious challenge for infectious disease specialists. The threats are everywhere in hospital settings and everyday communities. Reports of all kinds of multi-drug resistant organisms are abound, including recent reports of a typhoid superbug—H58—and carbapenem-resistant organisms.
The key to addressing these concerns all along has been a consortium-driven/collaborative approach. If the G7 is able to successfully address the need for funding, it will be an important step in the right direction.