Ardal et al. / Pull incentives for antibiotics – TATFAR analysis of 6 models

Dear All:

​The TATFAR group has a new and very helpful paper out in Clinical Infectious Diseases in which they analyze 6 different kinds of pull incentives:

  1. Higher reimbursement
  2. Diagnosis confirmation (lower cost for a few days of empiric therapy, higher cost if diagnostics confirm ongoing need)
  3. A fully delinked market entry reward (no sales-based income)
  4. A market-priced market entry reward (some sales-based income)
  5. Tradable exclusivity vouchers, and
  6. An options market-based approach.

After reviewing pros/cons of each, the authors conclude: “It is critical that the implementation of any pull incentive is viewed in the overall context of the broader global strategy to combat AMR. The balance of promoting and rewarding innovation while ensuring patient access and aligning stewardship and public health objectives is necessary in the design of any successful pull incentive.  Strengthening surveillance systems to monitor the incentive are also integral. The incentive that appears able to capture those elements reasonably well while concurrently minimizing secondary disruptive effects is the market entry reward market-priced model.   While the delinked option would likely more effectively stimulate innovation directly benefiting unmet public health needs, we are concerned about the sustainability of the funding levels required.”

This conclusion is consistent with everything else I am seeing. The full analysis is worth reading!

See links below for the full paper … unfortunately, I can’t just post same for sharing as it does not appear to be Open Access.

All best wishes,

–jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Chief Strategy Officer, CARB-X | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust
Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx


Link: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cid/cix526/3862465/Pull-Incentives-for-Antibacterial-Drug-Development?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Abstract: New alternative market models are needed to incentivize companies to invest in developing new antibacterial drugs.

In a previous publication (*), the Transatlantic Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR) summarized the key areas of consensus for economic incentives for antibacterial drug development. That work determined that there was substantial agreement on the need for a mixture of push and pull incentives and particularly those that served to de-link the revenues from the volumes sold.

Pull incentives reward successful development by increasing or ensuring future revenue. Several pull incentives have been proposed that could substantially reward the development of new antibacterial drugs.

In this second paper authored by representatives of TATFAR, we examine the advantages and disadvantages of different pull incentives for antibacterial drug development. It is TATFAR’s hope that this analysis combined with other related analyses will provide actionable information that will shape policy makers thinking on this important issue.


* The prior publication is Sciarretta K, Rottingen JA, Opalska A, Van Hengel AJ, Larsen J. Economic Incentives for Antibacterial Drug Development: Literature Review and Considerations From the Transatlantic Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2016;63(11):1470-4.

Link: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/cid/ciw593

Dear All,
 
The IDWeek 2024 program committee is again seeking programs on novel antimicrobial agents and novel diagnostics for presentation in pipeline sessions! Here’s what is sought:

  • “Industry partners are invited to submit antimicrobials that are in preclinical stages of development (Phase II and III preferred) or recently approved after January 2024.
  • “The pipeline sessions will include antibacterials, antifungals, and antivirals (excluding COVID-19 and HIV).
  • “The committee also invites companies developing novel diagnostic technologies with a minimum of some preliminary proof of concept data to submit.” 

This is a great opportunity to tell the story of your development project! The deadline to submit is Wednesday, June 26 via the application portal. Any questions should be directed to program@idsociety.org. Please share this email with anyone you think might be interested in applying!
 
In addition, I’ll also note that those with a more general story to tell should look at the BugHub Stage (and the Global BugHub stage). Both BugHub variants seek “presentations that touch on your experience of working in infectious diseases and presentations that ultimately lead to a greater understanding of our diverse field” via a TED Talk-esque speech about your work. The deadline for applications is 26 June, the same as for the pipeline sessions.

I look forward to seeing you there! All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.

John’s Top Recurring Meetings

Virtual meetings are easy to attend, but regular attendance at annual in-person events is the key to building your network and gaining deeper insight. My personal favorites for such in-person meetings are below. Of particular value for developers are the AMR Conference and the ASM-ESCMID conference. Hope to see you there!

  • 27-30 April 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): 34th ECCMID, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Go here for details. 
  • 17-20 Sep 2024 (Porto, Portugal): ASM/ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. Go here for the meeting’s general website. You can’t register (yet) for the 2024 event, but save the date!
  • 16-20 Oct 2024 (Los Angeles, USA): IDWeek 2024, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Save the date! More details to come!
  • 25-26 February 2025 (Basel, Switzerland): The 9th AMR Conference 2025. Go here to register

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • [NEW]  9 Apr 2024 (virtual, 830a-10a ET): GARDP’s next REVIVE webinar entitled “Progressing a discovery project – Criteria and challenges.” Register here.
  • [NEW] 9 Apr 2024 (virtual, 10a-1130a ET): CDC webinar “Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance on Cancer Care.” Click here for details and to register.
  • 10-11 Apr 2024 (virtual): Sepsis Alliance AMR Conference, a 2-day conference focused on “Practical technologies to manage sepsis and counteract the expanding challenge of antimicrobial resistance.” Go here for details and to register.
  • 26 Apr 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): ESCMID workshop entitled “Using Data Science and Machine Learning for Infection Science: A Hands-on Introduction.” Click here to register or here for more details. 
  • 27-30 April 2024 (Barcelona, Spain): 34th ECCMID, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
  • 26-31 May 2024 (Montreal, Canada): EDAR7, the McGill AMR Centre’s 7th edition of their Environmental Dimension of Antimicrobial Resistance conference. Go here for details; final abstract deadline is 21 Dec 2023.
  • 28-29 May 2024 (in person, Uppsala, Sweden): Uppsala Antibiotic Days, a broad-ranging 2-day program hosted by the Uppsala Antibiotic Center. Go here for details and to register.
  • [NEW] 30-31 May 2024 (face-to-face in Rockville, Maryland as well as online, 8.30-5.30p ET on 30 May, 9-2.40p on 31 May): NIAID-sponsored workshop entitled “Towards realizing the promise of adjunctive immune therapy for invasive fungal infections”. The agenda covers host immunity to invasive fungal infections, immune modulators in the context of fungal infections; and strategies for testing immune modulators as adjunctive therapy. Go here for more details and to register.
  • 9-13 June 2024 (in person, Ascona, Switzerland): “New Approaches to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, 2nd Edition” is a Sunday-Thursday residential workshop focused on the deep biology of AMR. Sponsored by NCCR AntiResist (a Swiss National Science Foundation consortium), the scientific program has the feel of a Gordon Conference. Space is limited, so you are encouraged to apply promptly — go here for details.
  • 13-17 June 2024 (Atlanta, Georgia): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. You can’t register yet, but you can go here for general details.
  • 17-20 Sep 2024 (Porto, Portugal): ASM/ESCMID Joint Conference on Drug Development to Meet the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
  • 16-20 Oct 2024 (Los Angeles, USA): IDWeek 2024, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. See Recurring Meetings list, above. 
  • 19-27 Oct 2024 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance). Now in its 8th year, Patrice Courvalin directs the program with the support of an all-star scientific committee and faculty. The resulting soup-to-nuts training covers all aspects of antimicrobials, is very intense, and routinely gets rave reviews! Seating is limited, so mark your calendars now if you are interested. Applications open in March 2024 — go here for more details.
  • 4-5 Dec 2024 (in person, Washington, DC): “Fungal Dx 2024: Fungal Diagnostics in Clinical Practice” is a 2-day in-person workshop organized by ISHAM‘s Fungal Diagnostics Working Group. The program and registration links are available at https://fungaldx.com/; the agenda is comprehensive and features an all-star global list of speakers.

Share

OHE £40k Policy Innovation Prize: AMR, anyone?

Dear All, One of your alert co-readers (Abigail Herron) pointed out to me the currently open call for applications for the OHE (Office of Health Economics) Innovation Policy Prize, a biennial £40k prize seeking “to promote thought leadership and solution-based theories around the big questions affecting the future of our industry.” Intriguingly for the AMR community, their

WHO call for data on pre-clinical antifungal R&D projects

Dear All, As part of their long-running project to maintain a useful view of the global antibacterial and antifungal pipelines, WHO yesterday announced a call for data on pre-clinical antifungal R&D projects. The scope is anything from Lead Optimization to pre-IND. Here are the links you need: The WHO webpage describing the call for data

GLG-AMR: AMR will lower global life expectancy by 1.8y. The fix pays for itself.

Dear All (moderately wonkish, so settle in for the ride — and the reason for the title of this newsletter will become obvious!), The GLG AMR (Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance) released a report on 3 April 2024 providing recommendations for consideration by UN Member States in the outcome document of the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on

48,015 → 0: Antibacterial discovery is hard. Really, really hard.

Dear All (and with thanks to Patricia Bradford for co-authoring this newsletter), When you are seeking novelty, antibacterial discovery is hard … really, really, REALLY hard. And it gets even harder if you want activity vs. Gram-negative bacteria. As the latest proof of this, a paper from GARDP’s Blasco et al. describing use of an

Scroll to Top