Drug resistance is outpacing industrywide efforts, says Netherlandsbased Access to Medicine Foundation in its latest Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Benchmark report, even as it identified seven innovative latestage projects that targeted certain drugresist-ant pathogens.
“The development of new medicines against infectious diseases continues to decline, but the 2026 AMR Benchmark does identify seven innovative, latestage projects from GSK, Otsuka, Shionogi, BioVersys, F2G, Innoviva and Venatorx that target some of the deadliest drugresistant pathogens,” the report said.
India’s Aurobindo found a mention in the report, along with GSK, Hikma, Sandoz
and Teva, for efforts in registering childfriendly formulations more widely than peers, though countries in subSaharan Africa remain overlooked, it added.
“More than one million people die each year as a direct result of drugresistant infections, while antimicrobial resistance (AMR) contributes to over four million deaths in total. By 2050, dir
ect and indirect deaths are projected to rise to nearly two million and more than eight million, respectively,” the report said.
“Our findings show practical approaches that can ramp up progress on all fronts,” said Jayasree K Iyer, Chief Executive, Access to Medicine Foundation.
Shionogi showed strongest progress across the board, while newly assessed biotech firms punch above their weight in research and development, the report said. The report evaluates 25 pharmaceutical companies seven large researchbased companies, 10 gen-eric medicine manufacturers and eight small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs).
“Chronic underinvestment, weak development pipelines and declining interest from the private sector mean communities affected by drugresistant infections suffer. The solu-tion lies in diverse partnerships, bringing together private companies, pharma and biotech, researchers, public and philanthropic funders, and new payment models to drive urgently needed advancements in antimicrobials,” said JohnArne Røttingen, CEO of Wellcome.
Source : Pressreader
