Participants include Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X.

The world needs a new generation of antibiotics to address the rapid growth in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The UK government’s 2014 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance estimated that such bacteria could result in the deaths of 10 million people a year by 2050 and an accumulated cost of up to $100 trillion to the global economy. Despite this urgent need, there remain few new antibiotics in development due to a lack of commercial viability for pharmaceutical companies with a 2019 Chatham House report highlighting the lack of progress being made on critical recommendations to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

This event will discuss the urgency of the development of new antibiotics and recent efforts to address the funding gap. What is the significance of the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? What are the challenges at the intersection of increasing demand for new antibiotics and their commercial viability? Does the recent announcement of a new fund from the pharmaceutical industry represent a major shift, or just the beginning, of what is needed?

Participants:

• Thomas Cueni, Director General, IFPMA
• Jim O’Neill, Chair, Chatham House
• Kevin Outterson, Associate Fellow, Global Health Programme, Chatham House
• Laura Piddock, Professor of Microbiology; Deputy Director of the
• Institute of Microbiology and Infection, University of Birmingham
• Chair: Emma Ross, Senior Research Fellow, Global Health Programme, Chatham House

To learn more, click here.