Immediate Action Needed on Increasing Antimicrobial Drug Resistance
The European Parliament has ruled that urgent action to fight the number of deaths caused by the rising bacterial resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
The resolution, last week, is a swift response to a report on the microbial challenge arising from the increasing threats from antimicrobial resistance, prepared by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, which investigated the increasing number of deaths caused by this resistance, reaching 25,000 each year in the European Union (EU), Iceland and Norway.
"The number of resistant bacteria in Europe is exploding. Bacteria travel across borders and are a threat for the whole EU”, highlights Anna Rosbach, the Member of the European Parliament who drafted the resolution. “We need to bridge the gap between rising resistance and development of new antimicrobials by promoting more research and innovation.”
To help slow the growth of antimicrobial drug resistance, the European Parliament is recommending the development of new drugs, an improvement in animal husbandry and more careful use of existing drugs. For the pharma industry this offers new opportunities to advance the research and development of novel drugs.
The focus is also to ensure that existing drugs are as effective as possible by encouraging responsible use. The study highlighted the need for improved education and training for doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians and farmers. It also emphasised the need for more comprehensive information for the general public on the harm done by using antimicrobials improperly to help support a change in attitude about consumption of these drugs.
The report underscored the need to reduce the “massive over-use of antimicrobials” by focusing on the prevention of disease rather than prophylactic use, essentially giving priority to prevention. This includes restricting the way antimicrobials are prescribed to animals and to separate this from sales – so that only professional vets can prescribe these pharmaceuticals. In particular, the European Parliament is recommending that the use of third and fourth generation microbials, which the World Health Organization classifies as “critically important” for people, is restricted for animals.
The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) strongly support the outcomes of the study.“We as an industry are committed to fight these by finding new cures but also by pushing for a more sensible use of the antimicrobial medicines that are already available on the market”, EFPIA said in a press release responding to the new resolution.
One of the recommendations to come out of this ruling which is of interest to the pharma industry is the desire to stimulate research and innovation. The aim is to improve the coordination of research on new antimicrobials, both across the European Union and internationally. Public-private partnerships are seen as one key way to achieve this and to ensure the new drugs are more accessible and affordable in the on-going search for more effective and less resistant antimicrobial drugs.