Dear All (Wonkish alert! Not technical but lengthy … so settle in and enjoy the ride!): Regular readers will know of my fascination with language: e.g., this 20 Feb 2020 newsletter entitled “Language Matters: CRE vs. CPE; SDD vs. I; And MDR, XDR, PDR, UDR vs. DTR.” How about that for acronymics taken to Olympian
Dear All, Last week I went to New York City to see one of the opening performances of Lifeline, The Musical, the world’s first musical telling the story of penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming, and the rise of antibiotic resistance! This was my first time seeing the production in its entirety and it did not disappoint. The timing
This is the fifth of a 5-part newsletter series. There is an initial 27 Sep 2023 newsletter introducing the EPA concept note, a second (28 Sep 2023) newsletter that expands on the EPA concept note, a third (12 Jan 2024) newsletter about ending the use of streptomycin spray on citrus crops, and a 4th newsletter (27 Jan 2024) containing some additional resources. Dear All, Excitingly, the US EPA
This is the third of a 5-part newsletter series. There is an initial 27 Sep 2023 newsletter introducing the EPA concept note, a second (28 Sep 2023) newsletter that expands on the EPA concept note, a 4th newsletter (27 Jan 2024) containing some additional resources, and a fifth newsletter (11 Oct 2024) about the EPA’s collaborative framework for evaluating the AMR risks of antibacterial and antifungal
Dear All, Although it seems entirely reasonable that the “Which came first?” chicken vs. egg riddle can be resolved in favor of the egg, a pair of papers in CID suggest that the answer to the parallel question of “drug vs. resistance to the drug” is changing in a way that is NOT in our favor!
Dear All, We are swimming in Broad Agency Announcements aka BAAs! As a refresher, I recently shared a BAA from the CDC and one from BARDA — now we have another one from NIAID! There’s a strong biodefense angle here with lots of scope. Key details of each opportunity are as follows and I highly recommend you check
Dear All, Ahead of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, I sat down with AMR Action Fund Chief Investment Officer Martin Heidecker for a Fireside Chat. It was a fabulous conversation that covered everything from how the Fund’s investment process works to what it’s looking for in portfolio companies to broader investment trends in the AMR space. As
Dear All, WHO have today updated their 2019 clinical/preclinical pipeline review by releasing their 2020 analyses of both the clinical and pre-clinical antibacterial product pipelines (the new 2020 report, the press release). Their 2020 review of antibacterial products in Phase 1 and beyond covers both traditional (n = 43) and non-traditional products (n = 27)
Dear All, Novel antibacterial agents, vaccines, and diagnostics will do little if they are not widely available and used responsibly. CDDEP’s recent report entitled “The State of the World’s Antibiotics in 2021” makes this very clear: “… more people in LMICs (low-middle-income countries) die from lack of access to antimicrobials than from resistant infection.” Hence, CARB-X has
Dear All, Three things briefly this evening: First, the observation about the limited degree of innovation across products in Phases 1-3 in the recent newsletter about the Pew Pipeline review (only 1 in 4 are novel classes or novel mechanisms; none are potentially active against Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens or WHO critical threat pathogens) generated queries along