SAVE THE DATE: 9 July launch of a major global AMR Initiative

(Updated on 8 July 2020)

Dear All,

Mark your calendars now for a major global AMR initiative that will be announced by live virtual events (webinars) from Washington and Berlin on 9 July and from Tokyo on 10 July. You’ll have to wait for the day to get the full details, but the initiative will definitely put new energy into the AMR ecosystem and the launch event is not to be missed.

Organized by IFPMA, EFPIA, PhRMA, BIO, and VfA, the global webinars will feature an unprecedented and ground-breaking collaborative global effort discussed by a star-studded cast (see lists below my signature). Here’s the webpage for the event as a whole (link). You’ll want to look for the event in your part of the globe:

  • Washington: 9.00-10.30 AM EDT (link)
  • Berlin: 3.15-5 PM CEST (link)
  • Tokyo: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM JST (on 10 July!) at the Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo (link)

Please register and attend! 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.

WASHINGTON Agenda:

Introduction and welcome remarks

  • David Ricks, Chairman and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company

FIRESIDE CHAT – Patient experience with AMR

  • Michelle McMurry-Heath, President and CEO, BIO – moderator
  • Brandon Noble, former NFL player

CEO ROUNDTABLE – Collaborating to beat the public health challenge (followed by Q&A)

  • Steve Ubl, President and CEO, PhRMA – moderator
  • Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer
  • Ken Frazier, Chairman and CEO, Merck
  • David Ricks, Chairman and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company

KEYNOTE REMARKS – The world urgently needs new antibiotics: Politics, leadership, and public health

  • ADM Brett P. Giroir, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health
  • Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA)
  • Senator Bob Casey (D-PA)

PANEL – The AMR ecosystem challenges, opportunities and policies necessary for change (followed by Q&A)

  • Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute – moderator
  • Helen Boucher, MD, board member and treasurer, Infectious Disease Society of America
  • Michael Boyle, MD, president and CEO, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
  • Kevin Outterson, executive director and principal investigator, CARB-X
  • Kathy Talkington, director, Health Programs, The Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Ramani Varanasi, founder/president/CEO, X-Biotix

Closing remarks

  • Ken Frazier, Chairman and CEO, Merck

BERLIN Agenda:
Introducing the new initiative – Bridging the gap between science and patients

– The problem, complication, and solution: Thomas Cueni, Director General, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA)

– The pharmaceutical industry investors:

  • Hubertus von Baumbach, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, Boehringer Ingelheim
  • Messages from: Emma Walmsley CEO GSK, Deborah Dunsire, President & CEO Lundbeck, Vas Narasimhan, CEO Novartis, Severin Schwan CEO Roche Group

The AMR public health challenge: Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Public health response to the initiative

  • Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization
  • Werner Hoyer, President, European Investment Bank
  • Jeremy Farrar, Director, Wellcome Trust

PANEL: The inventor, investment and partnerships to bridge the gap

  • Tiemo Wölken, MEP S&D German, vice-chair of European Parliament MEP Interest Group on AMR
  • Florence Séjourné, CEO, Da Volterra and President BEAM Alliance
  • Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson & member of the IMI Governing Board
  • Kasim Kutay, CEO, Novo Holdings
  • Stefan Oelrich, CEO Bayer Pharmaceuticals

PANEL: The world urgently needs new antibiotics – politics, leadership and public health

Health Ministers and the need for antibiotics innovation to tackle AMR

  • Jens Spahn, Federal Minister of Health, Germany
  • Magnus Heunicke, Minister of Health and Senior Citizens, Denmark

Joined by

  • Agnès Pannier-Runacher Secretary of State for Economy and Finance, France
  • Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety
  • Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck
  • Nathalie Moll, Director General, EFPIA

TOKYO Agenda:

Opening remarks (video messages)

  • International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) – Director General, Thomas Cueni (video message)
  • World Health Organization (WHO) – Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Dr Takesi Kasai

Keynote speeches

  • AMR threats and the need for counter measures – Trinity College, Professor Dame Sally Davies (video message)
  • COVID-19 and AMR in Japan – NCGM,Head of AMR Reference Center, Norio Ohmagari

About the new pharma initiative

  • Summary – IFPMA Vice-President Isao Teshirogi
  • Messages from Pharma Industry:
  1. Eisai, Representative Corporate Officer, COO and Industry Affairs, Yasushi Okada
  2. Daiichi Sankyo, President & CEO, Sunao Manabe
  3. Takeda, Chief Global Cooperate Affairs Officer, Takako Ohyabu
  4. Chugai, Senior Vice President, Keiji Kono

From the experiences of COVID-19 pandemic to AMR

  • Infectious diseases measure in Japan – MHLW Chief Medical Officer, Yasuhiro Suzuki
  • Essential efforts to create new antibiotic drugs and vaccines – JPMA President, George Nakayama

Media Q&A

Current funding opportunities:

  • Novo REPAIR Impact Fund is open for global applications through 31 Jul 2020. Go here for current details.
  • 2020 funding rounds for CARB-X have not been announced.
  • 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:

  • 30 Jun 2020 (online, 17:00-18:30 CEST): GARDP REVIVE webinar. Title: “Clinical development of antimicrobials – Phase 1 development challenges.” Speaker: Markus Zeitlinger. Go here to register.
  • 9 Jul 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 and Kamini Walla. Go here to register.
  • 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.
  • 27 Jul-31 Jul 2020 (online): 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 (also covering distancing learning options). Go here to register.
  • 4 Aug 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Development Considerations of Antifungal Drugs to Address Unmet Medical Need.” Go here to register.
  • 5 Aug 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Developing Antifungal Drugs for the Treatment of Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) Infection.” Go here to register.
  • 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.
  • 26-29 Oct 2020 (online meeting), 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.
  • 8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
  • 16-24 Oct 2021 (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.
  • 18-21 May 2021 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.

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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