Dear All,
Building on the success of the 21st Century Cures Act passed in 2016 and springboarding from a concept paper published in Science, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado, and Fred Upton, R-Michigan, have today introduced the 21st Century Cures Act v2.0! Here are the links you need:
- Discussion draft of the Cures 2.0 bill
- Cures 2.0 concept paper
- Press release from Rep. Upton
- Press release from Rep. DeGette
Cures 2.0 has six main areas of focus: Public Health and Pandemic Preparedness, Caregiver Integration, Patient Engagement in Health Care Decision-Making, Diversity in Clinical Trials, FDA Modernization, and CMS Modernization. Also embedded in it is a placeholder (Section 5.1) for an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) modeled after DARPA that would be funded to “tackle bold challenges requiring large-scale, sustained coordination.”
Excitingly, the text of the PASTEUR Act can be found in the discussion draft as Section 105 — to see it, either search for “Subscription” or jump to page 8, line 9. As discussed in the most recent newsletter, PASTEUR is the key fix for the broken economics of antibiotics … by creating substantial Pull Awards through a subscription model, the economic playing field is leveled out such that strong innovation would be as well rewarded for new antimicrobials as for new cancer drugs.
Woot, woot! Very, very good to see the momentum build! And if you haven’t already done so, please be sure to review Indiana Jones’ “Choose Wisely” message for the R&D community in the YouTube video (or below) and the 5 June 2021 newsletter … not all products will earn the same (or any) subscription model award from the PASTEUR Act.
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.
Current funding opportunities (most current list is here):
- CARB-X recently announced that their existing resources will be reserved to fund their existing portfolio (more than 80 total awards, and counting, as they include contracting from prior rounds). New rounds from CARB-X will occur only after new funding is obtained in 2021.
- It’s not a funder, but AiCuris’ AiCubator offers incubator support to very early stage projects. Read more about it here.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes the global clinical development pipeline, incentives for AMR R&D, and investors/investments in AMR R&D.
- In addition to the lists provided by the Global AMR R&D Hub, you might also be interested in my most current lists of R&D incentives (link) and priority pathogens (link).
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community (most current list is here):
- 20-24 Jun 2021 (Toronto): International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-12). Go here for details.
- 20-24 Jun 2021 (virtual, various times): World Microbe Forum sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). Go here for more details and to register.
- [NEW] 23 June 2021 (virtual, 7-8a EST, 1-2p CEST, 8-9p JST): Webinar entitled “2021 AMR Preparedness Index” evaluating how the 11 largest global economies are addressing AMR. Sponsored by the Global Coalition on Aging and IDSA, you can register here.
- 24 Jun 2021 (virtual, 9-4p CET): “Promoting Innovative Antibiotic R&D in Switzerland,” an event sponsored by the Swiss National Research Programme “Antimicrobial Resistance” (NRP 72). Go here for details and to register.
- 24 Jun 2021 (virtual, 09:30 AM – 05:30 PM CEST): Workshop entitled “Advancing Data Technologies to corner AMR.” Sponsored by AMR Insights, you can register here.
- 1 July 2021 (virtual, 10:00-11:00 CEST): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Balancing access to and stewardship of antimicrobials in LMICs.” Moderated by Philip Howard (U Leeds, VP BSAC), you can register here for the event.
- 5 Jul 2021 (online): Royal Society-sponsored webinar entitled “Advances in antimicrobial innovation.” Go here for details and to register.
- [NEW] 6 Jul 2021 (virtual, 10-11.30 CET): South-East Asia WHO Regional and Country experiences in implementation of national action plans for AMR. WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- [NEW] 6 Jul 2021 (virtual, 14.00-15.00 CET): Eastern Mediterranean WHO Regional and Country experiences in implementation of national action plans for AMR. WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- 9-12 Jul 2021 (virtual): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
- [NEW] 14 Jul 2021 (virtual, 10.00-11.00 CET): The Role of Vaccines in Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance– WHO Perspectives and Country Experiences (Pakistan). WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- [NEW] 14 Jul 2021 (virtual, 16.00-17.00 CET): The Role of Vaccines in Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance– WHO Perspectives and Country Experiences (Zimbabwe). WHO Webinar series, go here to register.
- 26 Jul-30 Jul 2021 (online): Small World Initiative Instructor Training Workshop – training for undergraduate professors in the wet lab techniques, parallel curricula, & pedagogical instruction to engage students in the hunt to find new antibiotic-producing soil microbes. Go here to register.
- 14-29 Aug 2021 (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.
- 24-26 Aug 2021 (virtual, timings not stated but presumably EU-centered): The 5th edition of the annual AMR conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, CARB-X, the Novo REPAIR Impact Fund, the IMI Accelerator, and the European Biotechnology Network. The in-person version of this meeting is consistently excellent; the video-based version will have to do for 2021. Go here for details.
- 8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
- 11-15 Oct 2021 (physical, somewhere in the UK): UK-focused Innovation Mission sponsored by Innovate UK in collaboration with AMR Insights and Oxford innovation. This free event seeks to connect AMR-focused start-ups, SMEs and Multinationals, Academia, Research Institutes, Regional Development Companies and other interested stakeholders in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Go here for more 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. Bonus feature: For obvious reasons, the course didn’t happen in 2020! But as a celebration of the course’s 5th year, a webinar version was held on 29 Oct 2020: go here to stream it.
- 25-28 Oct 2021 (Stellenbosch, South Africa): The University of Cape Town’s H3D Research Centre will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a symposium covering the Centre’s research on Malaria, TB, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and AMR. Go here to register.
- 5-8 Nov 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.
- 6-11 Mar 2022 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany): Gordon Research Conference entitled “New Antibacterial Discovery and Development”. Go here for details, go here for the linked 5-6 Mar Gordon Research Seminar that precedes it.
