Concept papers for comment: EMA Antibacterial Guidance + IACG global action action

Dear All: Also appearing today are two valuable opportunities to comment on key global strategy documents. I do hope each of you can make time to look at these materials and consider sending in your thoughts — it really does make a difference when central leadership groups hear from a broad array of stakeholders!

First, EMA has released a concept paper describing their intent to update and combine their core antibacterial guidance [CPMP/EWP/558/95 Rev 2] from 2011-12 and its addendum [EMA/CHMP/351889/2013] from 2013-14. The update will also include better synchronization with: 

  1. Their core PK-PD antibacterial guidance [EMA/CHMP/594085/2015],
  2. Their TB-specific guidance [EMA/CHMP/EWP/14377/2008 Rev 1],
  3. An update to the EMA pediatric antibacterial addendum [EMA/187859/2017] that is expected soon, and
  4. Output from the tripartite conversations being held between the EMA, US FDA, and Japanese PMDA.

The concept paper briefly summarizes the intent to merge and revise the core guidance and addendum in a fashion that appears very sensible to my eye. We (the public) are invited to comment during a public consultation period that ends 13 Sep 2018.

Second, and while you are in thinking mode, you should also look at concept papers now released for comment by the UN IACG (Interagency Coordination Group). As you may recall, the UN IACG has a mandate to provide guidance on ways to ensure effective global action to address AMR. With the goal of a full report to the UN Secretary-General in 2019, the IACG has divided their thinking into six areas:

  1. Public awareness, behaviour change, and communication,
  2. National Action Plans,
  3. Optimizing use of antimicrobials,
  4. Innovation, research, and development, and improved access,
  5. Surveillance and monitoring, and
  6. Global governance post-IACG and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As a prelude to this, the IACG seems to be preparing concept papers for each topic and you will now find online the concept papers for topics 2, 4, and 5. A timeline is not given for concept papers on other topics, but the concept paper most central to many of us will be the innovation report (topic 4). I need to spend more time with this one, but it appears to be a good general survey of the problem. In particular, it includes a reasonable discussion of the need for Pull incentives that concludes with these open questions:

  • How could R&D funding be better channeled?
  • What will it take to increase and sustain donor and private funding of R&D in AMR?
  • Which incentives and de-linkage mechanisms could best address each of the challenges and barriers identified?
  • How should the design of incentive mechanisms be coordinated at global, regional and national levels?
  • How could current efforts in R&D coordination be strengthened?

I am pleased to see the clear mention of the need for delinkage and Pull incentives and a focus on HOW to do it rather than WHETHER to do it. Again we (the public) are invited to comment during a consultation period that ends 9 July 2018.

Put on your thinking caps and send in your ideas! Now’s the time!

All best wishes, –jr

John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Expert-in-Residence, Wellcome Trust. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: http://amr.solutions/blog/

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • 21-22 Jun 2018 (London): joint EMA-FDA-PMDA workshop on pediatric development of antibacterial agents.
  • 22-26 Jun 2018 (Saskatoon, Canada): 5th International One Health Congress, including a dedicated AMR track
  • 26 June 2018 (CDD-sponsored webinar at 11a EST): “SAR data in Drug Discovery”. Andrew Leach (ChEMBL) and Evan Bolton (PubChem) will discuss drug discovery informatics and ways to use the freely available PubChem and ChEMBL SAR data.
  • 27 June 2018 (Washington): FDA workshop on inhaled antibacterial drugs for Cystic Fibrosis and Non-Cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis
  • 22-27 Jul 2018 (Bryant University, Smithfield, RI): Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance for Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture
  • [NEW] 21-22 Aug 2018 (FDA White Oak Campus, Silver Spring, MD): workshop entitled “Development of Non-Traditional Therapies for Bacterial Infections”. Meeting notice is here.
  • 21-22 Aug 2018 (Rockville, MD): NIAID-NINDS-DTRA workshop entitled “Infectious Disease in The CNS and Therapeutic Strategies to Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier”
  • 21-23 Aug 2018 (Cardiff, UK): BSAC Standardized Susceptibility Testing Residential Workshop. Register here.
  • [Don’t miss this one!] 4-7 Sep 2018 ESCMID-ASM Conference (#3) on Drug Development for AMR (Lisbon, Portugal). Full program is now posted.
  • 24-28 Sep 2018 (Big Sky, Montana): MSG-ERC (Mycoses Study Group) Biennal meeting
  • 3-7 Oct 2018 (San Francisco): ID Week
  • 6-14 Oct 2018 International Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe, Les Pensières, Annecy, France) 
  • 26 Oct 2018 (London): EMA information day for SMEs: “Regulatory toolbox for medicines and combined devices developers”. Here is the current agenda. Webcast will be available. More details from sme@ema.europa.eu.
  • 7-9 Nov 2018 (Seville, Spain): Better Methods for Clinical Studies in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology: A Hands-on Workshop

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.

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