R&D Insight

PACE: GBP 6m call for early-stage Gram-negative products

Dear All, PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy), a large UK-based public-private funder, have announced a £6 million funding round for projects in the hit-to-lead and lead optimization stages. The call is for antibacterial projects that target WHO priority Gram-negative pathogens (Enterobacteriaceae, A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa; see the AMR.Solutions summary of the priority pathogen

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EU’s €253 million, 10-year One Health AMR (OHAMR) Initiative

Dear All, The EU have today announced the European Partnership on One Health AMR (OHAMR), a major AMR funding initiative that will run for 10 years (press release, webpage)! As a bit of background, the EU have invested more than EUR 1 billion in hundreds of AMR-focused projects over the past ~15 years. From my

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De-risking vaccine development: Insights spanning decades of experience

Dear All (with thanks to Vega Masignani for co-authoring this newsletter), While the work needed to create new antibacterial agents is the primary topic of this newsletter, the need for vaccines of all types is definitely part of our community’s joint remit. As discussed in the 29 Mar 2021 newsletter (“Vaccines to turn back the

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20 Nov 2025: BARDA Innovation Symposium

Dear All, I am pleased to learn that BARDA is holding a one-day innovation symposium on 20 Nov 2025. As you know, BARDA is a consistently creative funder of diverse medical countermeasures, including new antibiotics. For background, see these prior newsletters: 22 Jul 2025 newsletter: “BARDA RFP: Antibiotic for HABP/VABP or Bloodstream Infection” 5 Nov

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WHO: Draft TPPs for MDR bacterial infections

Dear All, Back in 2019-2020, WHO developed a set of TPPs (TPP = Target Product Profile = A description of the desired attributes of a drug) for products for enteric fever, gonorrhea, neonatal sepsis, and urinary tract infections as guides for developers (see the 1 Sep 2019 newsletter for the original call for input and the link

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BARDA RFP: Antibiotic for HABP/VABP or Bloodstream Infection

Dear All, BARDA have published an RFP (Request for Proposals) under which it would support clinical development and then stockpiling of an antibiotic for “treatment of bacterial pneumonia or bloodstream infections.” Here are the data you need to get started: RFP #: 75A50125R00005 https://sam.gov/opp/494fc05d7c4940abad0273cdb465079a/view Submission deadline is 26 Aug 2025 Quoting liberally from the online

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Vaccination to prevent AMR: Insights from Wellcome

Dear All (and with thanks to Vega Masignani for co-authoring this newsletter), Waaaay back in 2019 (pre-COVID … remember that?), Wellcome put out a call for grants focused on understanding the value of vaccines in combatting AMR (4 June 2019 newsletter entitled “Why vaccines for AMR? What is their value? Grant opportunity for research on

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The threat of mirror bacteria: Ongoing conversations (July 2025)

Dear All (addendum: see also the 22 Dec 2025 follow-up newsletter), I wrote in a 12 Dec 2024 newsletter (“Mirror Bacteria: An AMR threat of unprecedented magnitude”) about the really disturbing possible threat from creation of “mirror” bacteria in which all chiral elements of the bacterium are replaced by their enantiomeric counterparts. Such bacteria are predicted to

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Updated FDA Q&A on Antibacterials for Unmet Medical Need

Dear All, An updated version of FDA’s very helpful Q&A entitled “Antibacterial Therapies for Patients With an Unmet Medical Need for the Treatment of Serious Bacterial Diseases – Questions and Answers” has just been released. Here are the links you need to get started: The new June 2025 guidance itself The webpage about the guidance

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Extending STEDI to diagnostics: STRIDES

Dear All (and with thanks to Betsy Trainor for co-authoring), The idea of the STEDI values of an antibiotic (its fire extinguisher-like values) comes up often. As a reminder, the STEDI values are Spectrum, Transmission, Enablement, Diversity, and Insurance. As a good example, consider Enablement: knowing that an antibiotic exists as a backup makes safe

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