The European Parliament has called on the Commission to do more in the fight against antimicrobial resistance in a resolution passed on 13 September in Strasbourg with an overwhelming majority (589 in favour, 12 against, 36 abstentions).

The Parliament’s own initiative report on “a European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)” (2017/2254(INI)), besides making recommendations on a more cautious use of antibiotics, heavily underlines the need for new models to incentivize R&D.

It stressed that “the current innovation framework does not effectively encourage R&D into AMR,” and called “for the adjustment and harmonisation of the intellectual property regime at European level, in particular in order to better match the duration of protection with the period requested for the innovative medicine in question.”

The Commission should consider “different models of collaboration led by the public sector and with the involvement of industry” and while “the capacities of industry play a key role in R&D in the field of AMR,” further public prioritization and coordination are required for R&D, it said.

EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis also is asked to “launch a public platform for publicly funded R&D projects in AMR and for the coordination of all R&D actions.”

The Parliament in the resolution expressed its support for the conclusions of the World Health Organisation, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) Joint Technical Symposium on ‘Antimicrobial Resistance: How to foster innovation, access and appropriate use of antibiotics’ as it has discussed new models “to incentivize R&D while delinking the profitability of antibiotics from volume sold.”

Parliament as well as Council had already “asked for a review of current incentives …, owing to their misuse and high final prices“, the Parliament states in the resolution and calls on the Commission “to analyze current R&D incentive models, including the ‘transferable market exclusivity’ model, with a view to designing new ones and defining the regulatory pathway.”

Health and Food Safety Commissioner Povilas Andriukaitis acknowledged the need for additional steps against AMR and announced that he would consider all the recommendations.

Image Credits: www.quotecatalog.com.