R&D Insight

Anti-Gram-negative beta-lactams in jeopardy: The rise of PBP3 mutations

Dear All (and with thanks to Robert Bonomo and Patricia Bradford for guiding me on this newsletter; anything that’s correct is due to Patricia and Robert; all the mistakes are mine!), This wonkish note has a short, simple version above my signature and then a longer version below by signature. The beta-lactam / beta-lactamase wizards will

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AMR Surveillance Data Challenge – Vivli 2026 Call for Projects!

Dear All, I’ve written before about the Vivli data challenge (2024 edition, 2025 edition) and am pleased to be able to say that there is a 2026 challenge! Here are the links you need: The data challenge overview’s home webpage The 20 Oct 2024 newsletter co-authored with Patricia Bradford that gives insights on how to

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GO-Dx: Global One Health Diagnostics Access Compact

Dear All, Building on the concepts of the January 2016 Industry-led Davos Declaration on action on AMR (website;.pdf declaration; yes, it really has been 10 years since the declaration!), we now have the launch of GO-Dx, the Global One Health Diagnostics Access Compact. Announced as part of the 5-7 April 2027 Lyon One Health Summit,

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The language of AMR: The power of metaphor

Dear All, Acronyms and jargon fill our daily scientific lives but can be impenetrable to newcomers. A great example is the title of the 20 Feb 2020 newsletter: “Language Matters: CRE vs. CPE; SDD vs. I; and MDR, XDR, PDR, UDR vs. DTR.” Total gobbledygook unless you’ve worked in the area for a while! On the

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Great AMR-focused podcast series on BBC Discovery!

Dear All, The BBC’s Roland Pease has put together a 3-part podcast series on AMR! Each episode is about 30 minutes, perfect for bite-sized listening. Here is my quick sketch of the topics and voices for each episode: Episode 1: From the discovery of penicillin to the rise of resistance Christoph Tang (Oxford) Kevin Outterson

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Antimicrobial Effectiveness: The strategic economic value of antibiotics

Dear All (and with thanks to Lucy Naga for being the lead author on this economic-focused newsletter), Antimicrobials are the quiet safety net of modern medicine. They underpin everything from routine infections to cancer treatment and surgery. They also support animal health and food production. Antimicrobial Effectiveness (AME, the ability of these medicines to remain

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WHO: New TPPs for antibacterial agents

Dear All, You may recall that in 2019-2020, WHO developed a set of TPPs (TPP = Target Product Profile = A description of the desired attributes of a drug) as guides for developers (see the 1 Sep 2019 newsletter for the original call for input and the link to the final set of TPPs). These initial TPPs covered: Enteric fever

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EMA: “Regulatory sandboxes” to explore approval pathways

Dear All, No, EMA has not decided to set up shop on the beach! Rather, the point of this newsletter is that I heard a fascinating talk on the idea of “regulatory sandboxes” during the recent BEAM-AMR meeting. I had not previously heard of this idea, but it turns out that the concept of regulatory sandbox

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CARB-X seeks new Chief of R&D (fully remote, worldwide)

Dear All, A very senior and globally significant leadership opportunity has appeared: CARB-X is seeking to recruit a new Chief of Research & Development! Given CARB-X’s role as the world’s leading public-private partnership accelerating the early-stage development of innovative products to treat, prevent, and diagnose life-threatening bacterial infections, and its current investment levels (approx. USD 100 million a

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