AMR.Solutions

Global Review of Pull Incentives / PASTEUR Sign-On Letter

Dear All:

We need to make Pull incentives work! On this theme, our first topic for today is an opportunity for organizations to sign a letter of support for PASTEUR. This letter is co-led by the AMR Action Fund, BIO, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Infectious Diseases Society of America and Partnership to Fight Infectious Diseases. Here are the links you need to join the over 170 organizations that have already signed on:

2026-09-17 - PASTEUR infographic excerpt
I like it! Well said! Please sign!

—
Emphasizing the importance of passing PASTEUR, our next topic is an excellent review of Pull incentives around the world! Here are the links you need:
  • The paper itself:
    • Anderson M, O’Neill E, Ljungqvist G, Cherla A, Claessens Z, Schoefs E, et al. Designing eligibility and evaluation criteria for antibacterial pull incentives: a comparative review of implemented and emerging initiatives. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. 2026;70. DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101849
    • The paper’s supplementary materials
  • Key related newsletters — start here for a deeper dive into this topic:


And now to the paper itself. Anderson et al. have searched widely and found data on 28 pull incentives: 20 implemented (UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, US, Japan, and EU) and 8 proposed or in development (US, Japan, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and EU). What did they find? Inconsistency and variation! I can’t improve on their summary:

  • “Eligibility and evaluation criteria vary substantially across countries in scope and specificity.
  • “Company-level obligations on stewardship, access, and environmental safeguards are applied inconsistently, and [are] most comprehensive in the UK and Swedish models.
  • “Greater international alignment around a shared core of criteria, while retaining flexibility for national context and operational feasibility, could reduce uncertainty for developers and strengthen the global incentive ecosystem.”

Table 2 gives you a good feel for the range of variation in Pull mechanisms: 

2026-09-17 - Table 2 from Anderson 2026

… and Table 3 (not reproduced … see the paper) shows a substantial variation in target pathogens. 

Sigh. This variation in requirements is not helpful to developers! It’s hard enough to do this work … and conflicting demands for what is considered good just makes it worse. We really need a consistent target with the clarity of something like the UK’s point-based system, or the as yet less-defined but structurally similar points-based system in PASTEUR.

Net, however, it’s tremendously helpful to have this review as the basis for further conversation and research. No mechanism is perfect, but the years of debate since the foundational workshop hosted by Sweden in 2009 on “Innovative incentives for Effective Antibacterials” have refined our understanding  of what is needed. The essential elements of the UK and PASTEUR mechanisms are the key we need to work towards global alignment on these ideas!

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

  • [Don’t miss it! Of particular note is a session on developing phage therapeutics — if this is you, please be sure to be there!] 22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): The 2nd GAMRIC, the Global AMR Innovators Conference (London, UK). Formerly the ESCMID-ASM (or ASM-ESCMID depending on location) Joint Conference on Drug Development for AMR, 2026 will be the 11th year for this series that is now under the joint sponsorship of CARB-X, ESCMID, BEAM Alliance, GARDP, LifeArc, Boston University, and AMR.Solutions. The ongoing series employs the successful format of prior meetings with a single-track meeting and substantial networking time. The 2025 meeting was a sell-out success: a written summary is here and the videos are here. Registration for the 2026 meeting is now open and the near-final program is here: in addition to a keynote lecture by Karen Bush on the threat to beta-lactams due to the emergence of PBP3 mutations, there are sessions on funding, access, program design for narrow-spectrum agents such as phage, development for pediatrics, and more. Registration is ongoing.
  • 21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. I would expect the program to continue to provide a substantial opportunity to present a product to a large audience (see also adjacent note about ESCMID) as well as opportunities to present at an IDWeek Pipeline Session. Go here to register.
  • 23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 10th AMR Conference (3-4 Mar 2026) is now over and offered a rich program that included a 10-year retrospective (we’ve done a lot!), regulatory updates, discussions of how to pursue development in China, and much more … in addition to being a superb opportunity for networking! I am told the session videos will soon be available on the conference website.
  • 9-13 April 2027 (Stockholm, Sweden): ESCMID Global 2027, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Details won’t be out for some months, but the website is here. I do know that the meeting schedule will again include a Science Policy Forum on Friday 9 April 2027 (see here the newsletter about the 2026 science policy forum) and all who are interested in Pull incentives and the antibiotic ecosystem should plan to be there!)..

  Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

  • 22-24 Sep 2026 (Lisbon, Portugal): GAMRIC  the Global AMR Innovators Conference. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above..
  • [NEW] 29 Sep 2026 (9a-4.30p ET, in person [Washington DC] or virtual): Jointly sponsored by FDA and the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, a workshop entitled “RISE to the Challenge: Statistical Considerations for Rare Disease Clinical Investigations.” This looks like a great discussion … all the major statistical gurus are speaking. Go here for the meeting’s webpage and to register for either virtual or in-person attendance..
  • 29 Sep 2026 (7.30-9.00a ET, virtual): REVIVE (GARDP) webinar entitled “The role of investigator-initiated clinical trials in advancing antimicrobial use.” The title of the webinar is a good description of its contents! Go here to register.
  • 10-18 Oct 2026 (Annecy, France, residential in-person program): ICARe (Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance) … and 2026 will be the 10th 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! Registration for 2026 is now open and runs through June 21, 2026. Go here to register!
  • 21-24 Oct 2026 (Washington, DC, USA): IDWeek 2026. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 10-13 November 2026 (Madrid, Spain): The International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) has announced its 21st International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID). Regular registration rates for ICID 2026 are available through September 30, 2026. Register and view the preliminary program here.
  • 16-18 Nov 2026 (FAO Headquarters, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy): The 4th Annual Plenary Assembly of the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform, of the Quadripartite organizations (FAO, UNEP, WHO, and WOAH). “Organized ahead of the Fifth High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR, the Plenary Assembly will bring together MSPP members and observers, partners and external stakeholders from across regions and One Health sectors. The Plenary Assembly will focus on moving from political commitments to practical delivery, with particular attention to supporting countries in implementing their AMR NAPs.” Go here for additional details to register.
  • 27-29 Jan 2027 (Las Vegas, USA): IMARI (Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation) sponsored by IDSA and ASM. Abstract submissions are open through 19 Aug; registration and housing will open later this summer.
  • 23-24 Mar 2027 (Basel, Switzerland): The 11th AMR Conference sponsored by the BEAM Alliance. See list of Top Recurring meetings, above.
  • 9-13 April 2027 (Stockholm, Sweden): ESCMID Global 2026, the annual meeting of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. See Recurring Meetings list, above.
  • ??? Mar 2028 (yes, that’s 2028, with location TBD): The 2028 Gordon Research Conference (GRC, https://www.grc.org/) entitled “Antibacterials of Tomorrow to Combat the Global Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance” and its related Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young doctoral and post-doctoral researchers will be sometime in March 2028. The organizers hope to coordinate dates and location with the 2028 BEAM-AMR meeting. Details to follow — mark your calendar!

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

Current funding opportunities

  • Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) have an EUR 20m call for development of rapid, point-of-care diagnostics. See the 28 May 2026 newsletter for details; the deadline for expressions of interest is 7 Oct 2026.
  • BARDA’s VITAL Hub has an open call for innovative antifungals. Non-dilutive funding of up to $250K is available to startups and university-backed projects working on “first-in-class, broad-spectrum antifungal drug candidates with novel mechanisms of action for the treatment of invasive fungal infections.” Candidates for the treatment of infections caused by Candida species, including Candida auris, and Aspergillus species, as well as rare molds, such as Mucorales are eligible. In-scope technologies include small molecules and peptide-based candidates. Neither vaccines nor antibody-based nor topical treatments will be considered for award under this solicitation (considered out of scope). Applications are due by 30 Oct 2026; go here for additional details.
  • CARB-X have announced their second 2026 funding round. The 4 funding themes are as below. The application window runs 10-23 Nov 2026; see the 2 Sep 2026 newsletter for more details:.
    • Direct-acting therapeutics for infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria
    • Novel Chemistry for AMR Challenge – target-based therapeutics.
    • Non-vaccine approaches to prevent neonatal sepsis
    • Diagnostics for neonatal sepsis
  • The India AMR Co-Development Programme (I-AMR-CDP) is a collaboration between Venus Remedies Limited, the Indian Government, GARDP, ADVANCE-ID that seeks to support antibacterial R&D based in India. I have limited insight into how collaborations would work; you can start with this LinkedIn post to learn more. 
  • 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. 
  • 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. See also the 7 Feb 2026 newsletter (“The global funding pipeline, 2017-2023: A review”) about an excellent deep dive by the Hub team into patterns of funding over time.
    • 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).
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