PHM-Exch> UK to call for G8 action against superbugs

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: shila kaur <kaur_shila at yahoo.com>
Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP)
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*Title :* TWN Health Info: UK to call for G8 action against superbugs

Third World Network
* www.twn.my*
 *
UK to call for G8 action against superbugs*
 The prevailing sentiment in the global health community is that the world
is on the brink of a public health catastrophe in view of soaring rates of
potentially lethal infections.  Public health programmes are under
increasing threat due to unbridled antimicrobial resistance.  While health
care providers grapple with increasing ineffectiveness of
‘drugs-of-last-resort’ and the pipeline for antimicrobial innovation
remains dry, governments are beginning to seek coordinated international
action to tackle antimicrobial resistance.  This mailing informs on the
latest move by Britain in efforts to arrest the problem.
 With best wishes
TWN
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 *UK to call for G8 action against superbugs*
 *By Shila Kaur, Penang, 13 June 2013*

In a move seen as the strongest to date by any country in the world to
arrest the alarming rates of lethal infections, Britain will urge the G8 to
take action against antimicrobial resistance through co-ordinated
international action.  Britain’s science Minister, David Willets has come
out strongly with a proposal for far-reaching measures aimed at clamping
down on the overuse of antibiotics by hospital doctors and GPs as well as
in animal husbandry and fisheries in Britain.
 According to a 11 June 2013 news report in The Guardian, Willet’s proposal
includes getting consensus on ways to increase new drug innovation, fast
track approval and delivery to patients as well as strong cross-border
surveillance for emerging strains.  Willets made this announcement ahead of
a meeting today (Wednesday 12 June 2013) of science ministers at the Royal
Society in London. (see appended ‘UK raises alarm on deadly rise of
superbugs’ The Guardian, Tuesday 11 June 2013)
 The meeting will be briefed by England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally
Davies, who has asked for antibiotic resistance to be added to the UK
government’s national risk register, a move that makes it easy to flag the
issue internationally.  She has already rallied international experts and
chief medical officers in other countries to push the EU and World Health
Organization to beef up their action plans.  This was evidenced by a
jointly organized  meeting on Antibiotic Resistance by the delegations of
Sweden and Britain, held on 21 May 2013 on the sidelines of the recently
convened 66th World Health Assembly in Geneva. (see TWN Info Service on
Health Issues, May13/09,
30 May 2013)
 WHO has warned that underlying factors that accelerate the emergence and
spread of AMR include: lack of a comprehensive and coordinated response;
weak or absent antimicrobial resistance surveillance and monitoring
systems; inadequate systems to ensure quality and uninterrupted supply of
medicines; inappropriate use of antimicrobial medicines, including in
animal husbandry; poor infection prevention and control practices; and
insufficient diagnostic, prevention and therapeutic tools.
 Britain’s proposals which are seen as far-reaching include stimulating the
development of new drugs through public-private partnerships, restricting
the use of antibiotics in farm animals and medical practice, cross-border
surveillance and national antibiotics education programmes.  The government
is expected to make public its antimicrobial resistance strategy next month
which will show case plans to slow down the emergence and spread of
antimicrobial resistant strains, maintain the effectiveness of existing
drugs and bolster support for researchers.
 Britain’s announcement may prove to be the rallying call for other
countries as it comes in the wake of an earlier report published by the
Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) on 17 April  2013 which
showed that since 1998, only four antibiotics have been produced by the
world’s 11 biggest drug companies – and today, only four Big Pharma
companies are still working on antibiotics at all.
 According to that report, in 2010 IDSA launched a ‘10 x 20’ campaign
calling for 10 new antibiotics by the end of the decade.  However only two
new antibiotics were approved in the US since 2009.  The report cited high
cost/benefit ratios and FDA rules as factors hindering interest in drug
innovation.  While a handful of smaller pharma companies have continued to
invest in antimicrobial drug innovation their numbers are small and
insufficient.  Without government partnership and support for approval
measures and finances, the brain drain from antibiotic research will
continue.
 A study by MPHonline.org reported that superbugs are responsible for US$20
billion a year in excess US healthcare costs, plus US$35 billion in lost
wages and other societal costs from the almost eight million days that
infected patients spend in the hospital.  Other bacterial strains cause an
estimated 3.6 million cases of food poisoning each year, according to the
US Centres on Disease Control and Prevention.  The symptoms can range from
diarrhoea to kidney failure, paralysis and even death.  Salmonella-caused
illnesses alone kill 400 people a year and cause 23,000 hospitalizations in
the US.
 According to doctors in Britain, some 80% of gonorrhoea is now resistant
to the frontline antibiotic tetracycline.  There is serious concern about
the rise of resistance to powerful antibiotics of last resort –
carbapenems.  Apart from this, there is threat of increasing use of drugs
in animal husbandry.  Increasing evidence also points towards the evolution
of strains of dangerous bacteria, including MRSA, E coli and salmonella
that are resistant to some of the strongest antibiotics.  While farms in
the UK  and other EU countries are not supposed to use antibiotics, there
is a lack of monitoring information on how these drugs are actually used in
practice.
 In the US antibiotics are routinely used in animal feed - where up to 80%
of antibiotics are used for animals – and in Latin America and other
regions because they help animals gain weight faster.
 In view of the above Britain’s proposal for increased public-private
partnership to stimulate drug innovation will be closely watched by the
global health community.  Detractors of the fast track regulatory approval
process, advocated by IDSA, to make antibiotic development more profitable
for Big Pharma, favour smaller pharma companies’ focus exclusively on
superbugs and other resistant bacteria.  Whether it is partnering with Big
or small Pharma, Britain will be test case of sorts with regards to
antibiotics innovation.
 It has also been intimated that Britain will eventually push for a UN
treaty that would ban antibiotics in food production such as fish and fruit
farming, streamline the regulatory process for licensing new drugs and
commit nations to educational drives that instil more prudent usage of the
drugs.
 What is clear is that in blazing the trail, Britain is impressing on the
global health community, the urgency of the current state of AMR.
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