AMR.Solutions

Churchill (1944) → WHO Pandemic Agreement and the Hamburg Statement (2025)

Dear All,

D-Day and the momentous Normandy landings were 81 years ago today. In a marvelous new article on bbc.com (and with thanks to Mike Hodges for pointing it out), we can read about how “Handwritten notes reveal Churchill’s penicillin concern ahead of D-Day.” The magic of penicillin was evident … but there wasn’t enough of it! Reading the conversation about “how can we get more” is really gripping! 

And for those who’d like even more drama around the transition from the pre-antibiotic era, you should consider first the discussion in an 11 Dec 2024 blog post entitled “Infectious diseases killed Victorian children at alarming rates.” In it, you will read of the many ways that infections would bring terror to families. And then check out our YouTube discussion of the 1949 movie “The Third Man” in which the theft of penicillin in post-World War II Vienna had lethal consequences!

With that historical backdrop, we let’s fast forward to “#AMRSOS! GRAM report: ‘at least 1.27m deaths/year directly attributable to AMR'” (20 Jan 2022 newsletter) … and then to last year’s United Nations High-Level Meeting on AMR (UN HLM AMR) about which there is a entire amr.solutions resource webpage that provides links to a 1 Oct 2024 newsletter, an 8 Dec 2024 summary in JAMA, and much more. Whew!

But there is MUCH more to be done and it is important that we have a steady drumbeat of reports and publications about the ongoing need for action. And so it is great to see two important new documents.

First, we have the resolution to draft a global Pandemic Agreement adopted on 20 May 2025 during the World Health Assembly (WHA). As discussed in the accompanying press release, the resolution on a Pandemic Agreement is the fruit of three years of intensive negotiation driven by the gaps and inequities identified in national and global COVID-19 responses. The resolution “sets out the principles, approaches and tools for better international coordination across a range of areas, in order to strengthen the global health architecture for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. This includes through the equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.”

With adoption of the resolution on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, a process to draft and negotiate a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) will be initiated via an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG). The goal of the PABS is to ensure timely sharing of “materials and sequence information on pathogens with pandemic potential.” The goal is to draft the PABS annex for adoption at WHA 2026, after which the WHO Pandemic Agreement would be open for signature and consideration of ratification, including by national legislative bodies. After 60 ratifications, the Agreement would enter into force.

And following swiftly on the heels of that action at WHA 2025, we have the 2 June 2025 Hamburg Joint Statement on AMR entitled “Scaling Solutions and Financing for Antimicrobial Resistance Mitigation.”

This document was created during a closed-door session at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) 2025 hosted by the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS) and ReAct Africa, bringing together an impressive list of stakeholders: the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of France and Denmark, the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Africa CDC, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Wellcome, the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat (represented by WHO) and the European Commission, among others.

The document summarizes messages from discussions at the Hamburg session on how to translate growing political commitments such as the 2024 UN Political Declaration on AMR from the HLM and the Pandemic Agreement from WHA 2025 into local, impactful interventions. ICARS has an excellent summary webpage about the event and the statement.

And I’ll close with a shout out to Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia, a new web-based R&D resource. With content that follows the concepts of the Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard, it is an actively updated web-based summary covering Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). 

Well done all! Exciting stuff … very good to see the energy continue! With thanks to our many colleagues who are engaged on the pressing problem of AMR and with 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

  • Vivli’s 2025 AMR Surveillance Data Challenge has extended its application deadline to 15 June 2025. To participate, please visit: https://amr.vivli.org/data-challenge. See also this 20 April 2025 newsletter.
  • [NEW] The AMR Industry Alliance is again offering a Stewardship Prize of 10,000 CHF to recognize innovative approaches to combating AMR in low-to-moderate-income countries. This year’s prize focuses on utilizing diagnostics in stewardship efforts. Applications are due by 1 Sep 2025. Go here for details and to apply.
  • NNF (Novo Nordisk Foundation) have announced their “Challenge Programme 2026 – Unravelling the Pathways of Human Invasive Fungal Diseases. The call seeks applications from EU-centered consortia (global partners are possible) for research in 4 areas: (i) fungal virulence factors, (ii) host-pathogen interactions, (iii) mechanisms of anti-fungal resistance, and (iv) fungal disease markers. Applications are due by 8 Oct 2025. Go here for details. 
  • ENABLE-2 has continuously open calls for both its Hit-to-Lead program as well as its Hit Identification/Validation incubator. Applicants must be academics and non-profits in Europe due to restrictions from the funders. Applications are evaluated in cycles … see the website for details on current timing for reviews. 
  • CARB-X will have two calls during 2025 that span two areas: (i) Small molecules for Gram-negatives (the focus is on Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and (ii) Diagnostics for typhoid (the focus is diagnosis of acute infections in 60 minutes or less). See this 26 Feb 2025 newsletter for a discussion of the call and go here for the CARB-X webpage on the call. The first cycle is now closed (it ran16-30 April 2025); the 2nd round will be open 1-12 Dec 2025.
  • BARDA’s long-running BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) for medical countermeasures (MCMs) for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases is now BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 and offers support for both antibacterial and antifungal agents (as well as antivirals, antitoxins, diagnostics, and more). Note especially these Areas of Interest: Area 3.1 (MDR Bacteria and Biothreat Pathogens), Area 3.2 (MDR Fungal Infections), and Area 7.2 (Antibiotic Resistance Diagnostics for Priority Bacterial Pathogens). Although prior BAAs used a rolling cycle of 4 deadlines/year, the updated BAA released 26 Sep 2023 has a 5-year application period that ends 25 Sep 2028 and is open to applicants regardless of location: BARDA seeks the best science from anywhere in the world! See also this newsletter for further comments on the BAA and its areas of interest.
  • HERA Invest was launched August 2023 with €100 million to support innovative EU-based SMEs in the early and late phases of clinical trials. Part of the InvestEU program supporting sustainable investment, innovation, and job creation in Europe, HERA Invest is open for application to companies developing medical countermeasures that address one of the following cross-border health threats: (i) Pathogens with pandemic or epidemic potential, (ii) Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats originating from accidental or deliberate release, and (iii) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Non-dilutive venture loans covering up to 50% of investment costs are available. A closing date is not posted insofar as I can see — applications are accepted on a rolling basis; go here for more details.
  • The AMR Action Fund is open on an ongoing basis to proposals for funding of Phase 2 / Phase 3 antibacterial therapeutics. Per its charter, the fund prioritizes investment in treatments that address a pathogen prioritized by the WHO, the CDC and/or other public health entities that: (i) are novel (e.g., absence of known cross-resistance, novel targets, new chemical classes, or new mechanisms of action); and/or (ii) have significant differentiated clinical utility (e.g., differentiated innovation that provides clinical value versus standard of care to prescribers and patients, such as safety/tolerability, oral formulation, different spectrum of activity); and (iii) reduce patient mortality. It is also expected that such agents would have the potential to strongly address the likely requirements for delinked Pull incentives such as the UK (NHS England) subscription pilot and the PASTEUR Act in the US. Submit queries to contact@amractionfund.com.
  • INCATE (Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe) is an early-stage funding vehicle supporting innovation vs. drug-resistant bacterial infections. The fund provides advice, community, and non-dilutive funding (€10k in Stage I and up to €250k in Stage II) to support early-stage ventures in creating the evidence and building the team needed to get next-level funding. Details and contacts on their website (https://www.incate.net/).
  • These things aren’t sources of funds but would help you develop funding applications
    • 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.
    • [NEW] Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation in Australia is an actively updated summary that covers Australia’s AMR research and patent landscape. It is provided via collaboration between The Lens (an ambitious project seeking to discover, analyse, and map global innovation knowledge) and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research). Lots to explore here!
    • Diagnostic developers would find valuable guidance in this 6-part series on in vitro diagnostic (IVD) development. Sponsored by CARB-X, C-CAMP, and FIND, it pulls together real-life insights into a succinct set of tutorials.
  • 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).

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, the small meeting format of BEAM’s AMR Conference and GAMRIC (formerly, the ESCMID-ASM conference series) creates excellent global networking. IDWeek and ECCMID are much larger meetings but also provide opportunities for networking with a substantial but focused audience via their Pipeline sessions. Hope to see you there!

  • 1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, this meeting series is now in its 10th year and is being continued under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series will continue the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time (go here to see details of the outstanding 2024 meeting).
    • Registration is now open and the preliminary agenda can be found at that same link (https://www.gamric.org/). The meeting will be limited to approximately 300 attendees, so please be sure to register promptly to avoid disappointment! 
    • The abstract submission window (same link as registration) runs until 13 June.
    • Application for travel grants (same link as registration) are accepted through 2 June.
  • [Note call for IDWeek 2025 Pipeline presentations] 19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Go here to register. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product (see also ECCMID), note the call for applications to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session; go here to submit an application for your compound or diagnostic.
  • 3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference. Sponsored by the BEAM Alliance, the 9th AMR Conference has just concluded and it’s again been an excellent meeting! Please mark your calendar for next year. You can’t register yet, but details will appear here! 
  • [Note that ESCMID’s Pipeline Monday will again occur in 2026] 17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. You can’t register yet, but you can go here for details on the outstanding 2025 meeting. For those who would like a substantial opportunity to present a product (see also IDWeek), I also know that the meeting schedule will again include Pipeline Monday; go here to see details from 2025.

  Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • 5-6 June 2025 (Coral Gables, Florida and also virtual): Scientific Meeting on Candida auris hosted by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. This is a follow-up to a meeting hosted in 2020 by NIH. Go here for details.
  • [NEW] 12 June 2025 (virtual, 13.00-14.30 CEST): WHO-sponsored webinar entitled “Addressing environmental drivers of AMR: New guidance for antimicrobial waste management.” This webinar will focus on WHO’s guidance documents on waste management for pharmaceutical manufacturing and on pharmaceutical waste in health care facilities. Go here to register.
  • 19-23 June 2025 (Los Angeles): ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Go here for details.
  • 10-11 Sep 2025 (Ghent, BE): Organized by a group at Ghent University in collaboration with the ESCMID Study Group for Non-Traditional Antibacterial Therapy (ESGNTA), the Phage Protein Meeting is an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to advancing the field of phage proteins for infection control that seeks to bring together academic researchers and professionals working with phage proteins such as phage lysins, tail fibers, tailspikes, depolymerases, and tailocins. Note that the focus here is on phage proteins rather than phage themselves. Go here for details and to register.
    • Note that the 10-11 Sep meeting is followed in Ghent on 12 Sep by the 4th annual meeting of BSVoM (Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes). This meeting is broader than therapeutics, providing an “interdisciplinary perspective on virus of microbes, ranging from basic research to industrial developments and clinical use.” Go here for details.
  • 10-13 Sep 2025 (Lisbon, Portugal): 6th ESCMID Conference on Vaccines. Go here for details.
  • 1-3 Oct 2025 GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK; formerly the ESCMID-ASM Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR). See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
  • 11-19 Oct 2025 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2025 will be the 9th year for this program. Patrice Courvalin orchestrates content 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 are being accepted from 20 Mar to 21 Jun 2025 — go here for more details.
  • 17-20 Sep 2025 (Porto, PT): 14th International Meeting on Microbial Epidemiological Markers (IMMEM XIV). Go here for details.
  • 9-13 Nov 2025 (Portland, OR, USA): ASM Conference on Biofilms. Go here for details and to register.
  • 18-24 Nov 2025 (global, multiple locations): World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) is convened annually on 18-24 Nov by WHO with national events (e.g., CDC’s US Antibiotic Awareness Week (USAAW); ECDC’s 18 Nov European Antibiotic Awareness Day) occurring around the globe. Details will follow as events become visible.
  • 19-22 Oct 2025 (Georgia, USA): IDWeek 2025. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 29-31 Oct 2025 (Bengalaru, India): ASM Global Research Symposium on the One Health Approach to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), hosted in partnership with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Go here for details and to register.
  • 28-30 Jan 2026 (Las Vegas, NV, USA): IDSA and ASM have announced a new US-based meeting series entitled IAMRI (Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation) and described as a “forum for collaboration and exploration around the latest advances in antimicrobial drug discovery and development.” You can’t register yet (further details anticipated June 2025) but you can go here to see general details about the new meeting.
  • 3-4 Mar 2026 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 8-13 Mar 2026 (Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Italy): 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance.” A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held the weekend before (7-8 Mar) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. Space for the GRS and the GRC is limited; for details and to apply, go here for the GRC and here for the GRS.
  • 17-21 April 2026 (Munich, Germany): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.

Self-paced courses, online training materials, and other reference materials:

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