Dear All,
Three things to share this afternoon.
First, Alan Carr has published a newsletter (link) reporting the results from the COVID-19 survey we did as a group last week (go here for the 26 Mar 2020 newsletter about the survey). Approximately 150 individuals in 14 countries responded during 27-29 Mar. Time-to-peak cases was estimated at 4-8 weeks, there was a trend towards using hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin, and Alan identified pipeline activity of 40 companies with slightly more than 40 projects underway. Alan offers in particular some detailed notes on vaccines and antibodies that you should read if you are interested in this space. Many thanks to Alan for suggesting we do this survey and to all of you for taking a few minutes to participate.
Second, former FDA Commissioners Scott Gottleib and Mark McClellan worked with a group of colleagues to prepare a 20-page road map to navigating the coming months with COVID-19 (link). Published under the auspices of the American Enterprise Institute, the paper suggests we think in terms of 4 phases:
- Phase 1: Slow the Spread. This is the current phase of response.
- Phase II: State-by-State Reopening. Individual states can move to this when they are able to safely diagnose, treat, and isolate COVID-19 cases and their contacts.
- Phase III: Establishing Immune Protection and Lifting Physical Distancing. This will occur when safe and effective tools for mitigating the risk of COVID-19 are available.
- Phase IV: Rebuild Our Readiness for the Next Pandemic. Self-evident … and the antibiotic community has a big role here! Repeat the mantra after me … Antibiotics (including antivirals) are the fire extinguishers of medicine!
As to when we might move from one phase to the next, I also thought this COVID-19 prediction tool was instructive: https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections. I also continue to find the Johns Hopkins map to be useful (link).
Finally, the Berlin-based Global AMR R&D Hub created by the G20 has released the first version of their dynamic dashboard (link). The idea is to provide real-time information on AMR R&D investments, products in the pipeline, and R&D incentives. Parts of the dashboard are still work-in-progress, but even now you can survey investment of $2.9b in 4,971 projects from 81 funders in 53 countries. Yow!
Stay safe, –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.
Current funding opportunities:
- Open now through 9 Apr 2020: NIAID Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) soliciting contract proposals for preclinical and clinical development of vaccines, therapeutic, and diagnostics for microbial pathogens. Go here for more.
- Dates for the 2020 funding rounds for Novo REPAIR Impact Fund will be announced May 2020. Go here for current details.
- 2020 funding rounds for CARB-X have not been announced.
- [NEW] The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes funders and projects by geography, stage, and more.
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:
- 28 Apr 2020 (online, 17:00-18:30 CEST): GARDP REVIVE webinar. Title: “Inhaled antimicrobials: Do we get the drug to the bug?” Speaker: Harm A. W. M. Tiddens. Go here to register.
- 5 May 2020 (online, 09:00-10:30 CEST): GARDP REVIVE webinar. Title: “The challenges and opportunities for antimicrobial R&D in low- and middle-income countries – India case study.” Speaker: Anand Anandkumar. Go here to register.
- 7 May 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Development Considerations of Antifungal Drugs to Address Unmet Medical Need.” Go here to register.
- 8 May 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Developing Antifungal Drugs for the Treatment of Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) Infection.” Go here to register.
- 18-22 Jun 2020 (Chicago), ASM Microbe 2020. Go here for details.
- 17 Jul-2 Aug 2020 (Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA): Residential course entitled “Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis.” This 2-week intensive training program has run annually for many years and gets outstanding reviews. Go here for details.
- 29 Jul-2 Aug 2020 (Philadelphia, PA): Small World Initiative Instructor Training Workshop – training for undergraduate professors and high school teachers in wet lab techniques, parallel curricula, pedagogical instruction to engage students in the hunt to find new antibiotics in soil. Go here to register.
- 24-25 Aug 2020 (Basel): BEAM-, Novo REPAIR-, CARB-X-, DZIF-, ND4BB-, ENABLE-supported (among a long list!) Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Details are here.
- September 2020. University of Sheffield (UK). Applications are being taken for a new 1-year (full-time) or 2-year (part-time) Masters of Science course in Antimicrobial Resistance. The program runs annually from September and covers microbiology, clinical practice and policy. The course webpage is here.
- 9-10 Sep 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
- 22-25 Sep 2020 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
- 17-25 Oct 2020 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. Registration is here and is limited to 40 students.
- 26-29 Oct 2020 (Rotterdam), Annual ESPID meeting (European Society for Pediatric ID, #38)
- 10-13 Apr 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
- 20-24 June 2021 (Toronto): International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-12). Go here for details.
- 3-7 Jun 2021 (Anaheim), ASM Microbe 2021. Go here for details.