Dear All:
It is great to see that the UK Department of Health (DH) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) have today announced the size, scope and eligibility for the UK-China AMR Collaboration that was initially announced in 2016. DH will to invest up to £10 million in UK businesses and MoSt will provide to 60 million RMB to fund the Chinese partners. The competition will open at the start of 2018 — more precise dates will be announced in due course.
The aim is to support novel products or services against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that neither country would be able to conduct within the same timeframe without the other’s expertise. Where appropriate, clinical evaluation can be supported. Specifically, the call will seek projects that:
- explore opportunities from traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment or prevention of infectious diseases in humans or animals
- advance the discovery of new agents to prevent or treat drug-resistant bacterial infection in humans or livestock. New agents could include small molecule drugs, vaccines, antibodies or other biological products
- identify new agents that will increase the feed energy conversion in livestock. This should be done without use of antibiotics or hormones
- maximise the clinical utility of current antibiotics. The aim is to improve the prognosis of patients with extensively drug-resistant infections
- improve capabilities for the diagnosis, treatment selection and surveillance of bacterial infections and antibacterial resistance
The Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and Innovate UK will be hosting a number of roadshows across the UK to publicise the competition as well as activity to support partnership building with Chinese researchers. Gabriela Juarez Martinez from the KTN (gabriela.juarezmartinez@ktn-uk.org) can provide more information to interested researchers. Projects will need to comply with Official Development Assistance (ODA) criteria.
Well done to all for working to make this happen!
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. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://13.43.35.2/blog.html
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:
- 5-8 Sep 2017: ASM-ESCMID conference on antibiotic R&D, including the CARB-X + GARDP Antibiotic Bootcamp
- 13 Sep 2017 (DC): FDA-CDRH workshop on diagnostic devices for detecting antimicrobial susceptibility & resistance
- 4-8 Oct 2017 (San Diego): IDWeek
- 29 Oct-1 Nov 2017 (Santa Fe): Keystone Symposium – Antimicrobials and Resistance: Opportunities and Challenges
- 24-27 Nov 2017 (Taipei): 30th International Congress of Chemotherapy & Infection (ICC)
- 12-14 Feb 2018 (Baltimore): ASM Biothreats Conference
- 11-16 Mar 2018 (Ventura Beach): Gordon Research Conference on Antibacterial Discovery
- 21-24 Apr 2018 (Madrid): ECCMID
- 7-11 Jun 2018 (Atlanta): ASM Microbe
- 22-27 Jul 2018 (Bryant University, Smithfield, RI): Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance for Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture
