The World Health Organization Executive Board is being asked this week to consider a steep budget increase to cover the ambitious new “Transformation Plan” of Director General Tedros Adhanom Gheyebresus, which aims to improve the health of at least 3 billion people by 2025. The 8 percent budget hike requested for 2020-2021 will be reviewed by the Board along with a range of critical policy issues when it meets for its 144th session from 24 January-1 February. Here's what you need to know to follow the action. Continue reading ->
The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Takeda signed an agreement this week for GARDP to access and screen the chemical libraries of Eisai and Takeda with the hope of finding chemical compounds with antibacterial properties. Continue reading ->
A new study has analysed antibiotic sales data from 70 middle-income and high-income countries, and found variation in the use of antibiotics to treat children, with some countries deviating from World Health Organization recommendations on antibiotic stewardship. Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization published new data today that it says “reveals wide differences in consumption of antibiotics in different countries,” suggesting overuse and misuse of these life-saving medicines, which contributes to antibiotic resistance. Continue reading ->
As governments increasingly mobilise to address the now-recognised urgency of creating new antibiotics before humanity develops resistance to existing ones, the pharmaceutical industry broadly is trying to position itself to be helpful in the effort. In a statement today, an industry alliance on antimicrobial resistance reported on its progress this year to date. Continue reading ->
More dedicated to scientific research and much more “colourful” than the World Health Summit were descriptions for the 14th Global Grand Challenges Meeting 2018 that ended last night in Berlin and brought together some top researchers, policymakers and civil society. Like the WHS, the Grand Challenges Meeting focused on antimicrobial resistances and pandemic pathogens. But it also talked a little more on the issue of how better to incentivize R&D to fulfil SDG3, the UN Sustainable Development Goal on health, according to participants. Continue reading ->
The World Investment Forum 2018, a biennial event organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), will hold a session on health this year jointly with the World Health Organization. The session will address the need for investment in the development of new antibiotics, hoping to raise interest among investors. Continue reading ->
Novartis and the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) have announced that they are “joining forces” to reduce child deaths from antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by accelerating “the development and availability of generic antibiotic treatments for children in low- and middle-income countries,” according to a GARDP press release. Continue reading ->
A global group of experts representing animal health, human health, food safety and environmental health is currently deliberating ways to control antimicrobial resistance, a nightmare scenario in which drugs able to fight the deadliest infections stop working. Continue reading ->
In an effort to curb antimicrobial resistance and the looming disaster of a defenceless world against bacterial infection, three United Nations organisations have joined forces. The World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and the World Organization for Animal Health have been tasked to establish a global framework which would encourage the development of new antibiotics and the good management of current ones. This week, WHO member states and stakeholders are meeting to discuss a draft of the framework. Continue reading ->