John Rex

Vaccine development: Polytheism vs. Monotheism

Dear All (and with a wonkish alert!), The idea of more (and better) vaccines to prevent (or even be part of treating) bacterial infections has long intrigued. We certainly do have several good bacterial vaccines, but why not more? As part of this ongoing discussion, I really enjoyed a paper that came out back in

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Impact of AMR on cancer therapy

Dear All (unapologetically wonkish … very important material!), Let’s set the scene today by considering two quotes: Prosaic: “The successful treatment of patients with cancer has long depended on the capacity to manage infectious complications.” (Shropshire 2025, cited below) Blunt translation: “Your cancer will be controlled, but then you may die of infection.” (Abdul Ghafur,

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Vivli’s 2025 AMR Surveillance Data Challenge

Dear All, We’ve previously discussed the availability of large surveillance datasets from the Vivli AMR Register. In particular, you should review Patricia Bradford’s summary of ways to use these data in the 20 Oct 2024 newsletter entitled “Vivli: Access to Industry’s Susceptibility Surveillance data.” Vivli have now announced their 2025 Vivli AMR Surveillance Data Challenge. This particular challenge is

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Manufacturing underpins access in LMICs: An update on cefiderocol

Dear All, No one is safe until we’re all safe! In the 7 April 2025 newsletter on antibiotic access (“UNSLAP: You reach for the antibiotic … and it’s not there!”), Louise Norton-Smith and I concluded that we need to work to address all the elements of the long and delicate supply chain from manufacturing to local

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Most current global summary of Pull incentives

Dear All, I was recently asked about a ready summary of the current state of play of Pull incentives around the globe. In response, here are two related resources: First, WHO and the Global AMR R&D Hub jointly author an update on the state of incentives for R&D. Their most current report is dated 14 Oct

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Sign-on letter encouraging AMR funding in the FY2026 US budget

Dear All, If you represent a US-based organization with an interest in AMR, there is an opportunity to sign a letter advocating for AMR-related funding in the FY2026 US Government (USG) budget. Founded in 2014, IDSA’s S-FAR (Stakeholder Forum on Antimicrobial Resistance) has been steadily coordinating messages to the USG from professional groups with an interest

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UNSLAP: You reach for the antibiotic … and it’s not there!

Dear All (with thanks to Louise for co-authoring and with a wonkish alert … settle in for the ride!), Today’s newsletter discusses the intersection of three themes around antibiotic access. Recall first how the paper by Baraldi et al. (1 Dec 2024 newsletter) taught us that there are at least six variations to the idea

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Antibacterial R&D is very hard! Two great pipeline reviews + an Industry-level view

Dear All (and with thanks to Stephan Harbarth for co-authoring this newsletter), A new review by Ursula Theuretzbacher and colleagues from GARDP provides an opportunity to (i) discuss the preclinical antibacterial pipeline (the new paper), (ii) remind you of a recent review of the Gram-negative clinical pipeline, and (iii) share an excellent Industry-level perspective on

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WHO pipeline reviews: Antifungal agents and fungal diagnostics

Dear All, As you know, WHO have been steadfastly producing both priority pathogens lists (PPLs) and pipeline reviews. My current summaries of both are found at https://amr.solutions/pathogens-and-pipelines/. WHO began this process in 2017 with an initial focus antibacterial agents. To date, they have released multiple antibacterial pipeline reviews (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, see

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