Potpourri: Help design ASM Microbe 2019; IACG consultancy; JLME issue on antibiotic incentives

Dear All: Three things today — see list below. And if you’ve not heard, it looks like REVAMP (the US pull incentive) is not going to make it into legislation. Frustrating! We’ll have to keep trying on this. Best wishes for the summer, –jr

  1. ASM Microbe 2019 has put out a call for session proposals. Deadline is 3 Aug 2018. They seek proposals for plenaries, symposia, workshops, etc.
  2. The UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR (IACG) seeks a consultant who can analyze, synthesize, and summarize their work to date. The deadline for applications is 31 July 2018 and you’ll find more details below my signature.
  3. As a special supplement, the International Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics has just published a set of 10 papers laying out much the deeper background behind the conclusions from the work of both DRIVE-AB and the Duke-Margolis policy review effort. This is a fabulous and comprehensive summary and is entirely free to download!

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/

————————-
IACG Consultancy
Contract type: Consultancy
Application Deadline:31 July  2018
Contact: Rosalie Edma
Email address: edmar@who.int

Background: The UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR (IACG) was established by the UN Secretary General following a UN General Assembly Resolution to provide practical guidance for approaches needed to ensure sustained effective global action to address antimicrobial resistance, including options to improve coordination, taking into account the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. The WHO Strategic Initiatives Cluster provides the Secretariat for the IACG with contributions from FAO and OIE to facilitate the work and deliverables of the IACG through establishing and forging a partnership platform with governments, UN agencies, diplomatic missions, private sector and civil society. 

The IACG over the last year has taken forward work on critical issues through analysis and deliberation with particular focus on the following areas: public awareness, behaviour change and communication; National Action Plans; optimize use of antimicrobials; innovation, research, and development and improved access; surveillance and monitoring; and global governance post IACG and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. This work has led to the development of discussion papers which were posted for web-based public consultation. The IACG Secretariat received comments Member States, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, private sector entities, philanthropic foundations, academic institutions and individuals. The comment and feedback will be used to inform the development of the recommendations of the IACG and its final report and further enrich IACG discussions as it  enters into the critical phase of its functions. Further information is available at http://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/interagency-coordination-group/public-consultation-discussion-papers/en/

Overall Objective of the consultancy:
Critical appraisal, analysis and systematic synthesis of the feedback obtained on the IACG discussion papers and facilitate the utility of the comments for informing the processes and deliverables of the IACG.

Deliverables of the consultancy:
The deliverables of the consultancy include the development of data organisation, synthesis and analysis protocol as well as an organised database of the information and summary report to inform the drafting of the recommendations and final report of the IACG.

Requirements for qualifications and experiences:
Essential qualification:
Post graduated university degree in public health, social science or relevant fields.
Essential experiences:
At least 7 years professional experience in public health policy analysis, research or implementation. Experience in One Health Approach of antimicrobial resistance and/or other relevant communicable disease programmes.
Grade and payment
P4 rate based on experience

If you are interested to apply, please send your CV and a maximum two pages of data synthesis and analysis approach proposal to edmar@who.int not later than 31 July 2018. This is a time sensitive assignment only candidates with strong proposal will be contacted.  

————————-
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • 22-27 Jul 2018 (Bryant University, Smithfield, RI): Gordon Research Conference on Drug Resistance for Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture
  • 7-8 Aug 2018: A pair of FDA Advisory Committees:
  • 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.
  • [NEW] 26-29 Aug 2018 (Atlanta, GA): CDC’s International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID). 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.

Share

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

Call for Pull: Swiss Roundtable on Antibiotics

Dear All, To end the week, we have a really lovely paper from the Swiss Roundtable on Antibiotics (a multidisciplinary, non-profit Swiss association). Here are the links you need: The new (25 March 2024) paper entitled “Effective antibiotics for the Swiss health care system: today and in the future.” A prior (7 Feb 2023) paper

Help PASTEUR cross the finish line: Action Alert from IDSA!

Dear All, Today’s news is that the House PASTEUR sponsors (Drew Ferguson [R-GA-3], Scott Peters [D-CA-50], Jake LaTurner [RKS-2] and Mike Levin [D-CA-49]) are urging House leadership to authorize the PASTEUR Act without initially having funding attached. Although this may seem counterintuitive, initial passage as a $0 bill is a solid strategy — it is common

Scroll to Top