Dear All:

Late last year, I had the opportunity to hear a presentation on antibiotic R&D in Japan by Norio Ohmagari. Based in Tokyo at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine Hospital (link), Norio is Director of its (i) AMR Clinical Reference Center, (ii) Disease Control and Prevention Center, and (iii)  WHO Collaborating Centre for Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Emerging Infectious Diseases. In short, he is very well connected with the antibiotic landscape in Japan!

Norio has now posted his talk (link) and I encourage you to take a look. The talk includes:

• A historical summary of Japanese antibiotic R&D
• An overview of the 2016 Japanese National Action Plan on AMR
• A discussion of the harmonization work being undertaken jointly by Japan’s PMDA with US FDA, and EU EMA (I’ve written about this tripartite regulatory group before, link)
• A discussion of the SAKIGAKE rapid approval scheme
• A detailed summary of (mostly preclinical) antibacterial, antimycobacterial, and antifungal products in development
• A discussion of incentives schemes in Japan, including a call for Pull incentives (proposals have included Market Entry Rewards and Transferrable Exclusivity, but these have not yet been implemented)

It’s great to see all this action in Japan, especially the awareness of the need for Pull incentives. We can now add Japan to the US (link for notes on CMS actions and link for legislative activity) and UK (link for notes on the NHS subscription pilot) as countries actively engaged in creating such tools!

1 Dec 2020 addendum: The Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) has a great webpage summarizing all the actions they have to encourage Pull incentives in Japan.

10 Dec 2020 addendum: Nikkei Inc. (a major newspaper company in Japan) has been organizing an annual Nikkei FT Communicable Diseases Conference since 2014 that gathers representatives of the private sector, academia and high-ranking government officials responsible for health, both within and outside Japan. Their 7th meeting was held 6 Nov 2020 and the summary of the meeting (.pdf) describes ongoing work to define a suitable subscription model in Japan. For more details, search for ‘incentive’ in the .pdf. This is exciting to see!

22 Jan 2021 addendum: The Global Coalition on Aging held a workshop on 7 Oct 2020 on the risk of AMR to Japan’s super-aging society. The workshop concluded that AMR is a serious risk to Japan and encouraged Japan to take global leadership on this issue. A workshop summary is available.

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/

Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:

• 16 Jan 2020 (Washington, DC): Duke-Margolis meeting entitled (approximately) “improving Payment Policies for Antibiotics.” This meeting will run 10:30am – 4:30pm ET. Go here to register.
• 21 Jan 2020 (1700-1830 CET, online): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “Testing for the potential of emergence of resistance.” Go here to register.
• 28-29 Jan 2020 (Rockville, MD, NIAID campus): Two-day workshop entitled “Understanding the Biology, Antifungal Resistance and Clinical Implications of Candida auris.” Draft agenda is here and registration is here.
• 20 Feb 2020 (London, UK): Westminster Health Forum conference entitled “Antimicrobial resistance – coordinating a global response and progress on the UK strategy.” Go here for details.
• 24 Feb 2020 (London, UK): One-day workshop hosted by Royal College of Nursing and the Longitude Prize entitled “Developing point-of-care diagnostics for urinary tract infections (UTIs): addressing clinical need in the UK.” Register here.
• 26-27 Feb 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
• 27 Feb 2020 (1700-1830 CET, online): GARDP-sponsored webinar entitled “PK/PD murine infection models: Focus on study elements, variability, and interpretation of results.” Go here to register.
• 1-6 Mar 2020 (Il Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Antibacterial Discovery and Development: “Now is the time to re-boot antibiotic R&D before it’s too little, too late.” Go here for details.
• 12-13 Mar 2020 (Basel): BEAM-, Novo REPAIR-, CARB-X-, DZIF-, ND4BB-, ENABLE-supported (among a long list!) Conference on Novel Antimicrobials and AMR Diagnostics. Details are here, poster deadline is 12 Dec 2019.  
• 16-17 Mar 2020 (London): BSAC Spring Conference entitled: “Bridging the gap between science, policy and effective antimicrobial use.” Go here for details. 
• 9 Apr 2020 (everywhere): Final date for applications for NIAID/DMID call (link) for AMR-related vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
• 18-21 Apr 2020 (Paris): Annual ECCMID meeting (#30)
• 25-30 May 2020 (Rotterdam), Annual ESPID meeting (European Society for Pediatric ID, #38)
• 18-22 Jun 2020 (Chicago), ASM Microbe 2020. Go here for details.
• 27-28 Jun 2020 (Bryant University, Rhode Island): Drug Resistance Gordon Research Seminar entitled “Mechanisms and Approaches to Overcoming Drug Resistance in Cancer, Infectious Disease and Agriculture” for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. Go here for details … this immediately precedes the GRC listed just next
• 28 Jun-3 Jul 2020 (Bryant University, Rhode Island): Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled “Strategies to Disrupt Drug Resistance in Infectious Disease, Cancer and Agriculture.” Go here for details.
• 1-4 Sep 2020 (Dublin): Annual ASM-ESCMID Conference on Antibiotic Development #5! Mark your calendar now and go here for details.
• 9-10 Sep 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
• 22-25 Sep 2020 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.
• 17-25 Oct 2020 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. The date is set for 2020 and the program will ultimately appear here. Registration is limited to 40 students and opens 15 Mar 2020.
• 10-13 Apr 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
• 3-7 Jun 2021 (Anaheim), ASM Microbe 2021. Go here for details.