ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE SOLUTIONS
WITH DR. JOHN H. REX
Latest Newsletters
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 of this 5-week run of the show aligns with the upcoming 26 Sep 2024 United Nations General Assembly HLM (High-Level Meeting) on AMR, hopefully generating enhanced awareness of AMR.The plot follows two Scottish doctors separated by a century who are both fighting for the same thing...
Dear All, Supplementing and augmenting...
Dear All,Just published in AAC...
The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism.
Latest Government Action
Dear All (with thanks to Kevin for leading on this newsletter and with a wonkish / long-read alert on this email ... settle in for the ride!),Great news from TEAM UK! As of 12 August, the UK Subscription Program is no longer a pilot but is fully operational with an initial application deadline of 12 Sep 2024. Here are the links you need to follow along:The 12 Aug 2024 NHS England webpage that provides the basic announcementThe Find-A-Tender legal notice: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/025397-2024The detailed procurement documentsMaster website: https://atamis-1928.my.site.com/s/WelcomeIf you click on "View Live Opportunities", you can search to find the webpage entitled "NHS Antimicrobial Resistance Subscription Model"And from here click on the View Documents tab to access the full set of documents starting with Document #1: "Invitation to Tender"Rather a bit of digging required here: if you get stuck, there are contact emails readily evident for helpFor contextThe 8 May 2024 NHS England "long read" summary entitled "Antimicrobial products subscription model: guidance on commercial arrangements"The 8 May 2024 AMR.Solutions newsletter entitled "New UK 5-year AMR plan: Subscription model details!"There's a fair bit to digest if you are going apply, but the key points that everyone needs to know are briefly summarized here with extended details below...
Dear All,During the GLG AMR...
Dear All,Well, ECCMID 2024 (Barcelona)...
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Dear All,This one slipped past...
R&D Insight
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Note: For those of you...
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Addendum: This is the third...
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Can you help?
Dear All,I have just learned that Lifeline, the musical formerly known as The Mould that Changed the World, is seeking scientists, medics, and healthcare professionals to be part of the cast for a portion of a planned 5-week off-Broadway run of the show around the time of the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on AMR at UNGA 2024 in New York City...
Dear All, Heads up! Having...
Note: Be sure to take...
Update on 11 October 2023: The...
Dear All,Along with more than...
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Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics. And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.
AMR Fireside Chats
1/17 videos
1
Episode 16 w/ Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
32:59
2
Episode 15 w/ Mark Albrecht, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
43:55
3
Episode 14 w/ Lynn Silver - AMR Fireside Chat
56:23
4
Episode 13 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
30:01
5
Episode 12 w/ Tina Joshi, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
34:22
6
Episode 11 w/ Martin Heidecker - AMR Fireside Chat
32:31
7
Episode 10 w/ Anna Govett - AMR Fireside Chat
14:54
8
Episode 9 w/ Fatema Rafiqi, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
34:10
9
Episode 8 w/ Ghada Zoubiane, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
35:04
10
Episode 7 w/ Trevor Lithgow, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
35:41
11
AMR Snapshots: Episode 2 - John Rex (Editor-In-Chief, AMR.Solutions)
26:25
12
Episode 6 w/ Maryn McKenna - AMR Fireside Chat
45:50
13
Episode 5 w/ Christine Årdal - AMR Fireside Chat
43:44
14
Episode 4 w/ Peter Beyer - AMR Fireside Chat
39:21
15
Episode 3 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
11:45
16
Episode 2 w/ Henry Skinner, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
15:44
17
Episode 1 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
52:56
Summaries
Note: Since sending the 18 May 2024 newsletter about the new WHO bacterial PPL, I have learned of a 2021 PPL from Japan! Please see the Bugs & Drugs webpage to get an updated .pptx or .pdf summarizing all 8 PPLs published to date.Dear All (wonkish alert ... but definitely worth the effort! Refill your coffee!),Ramanan Laxminarayan and about 40 colleagues from around the world have just published in the Lancet a GLORIOUS collection of papers on the theme of "Sustainable Access to Effective Antibiotics."There are six papers in total for you to digest: An Executive Summary, four papers with analysis and data, and then a commentary. Here are the links you need along with very brief comments (and see below my signature for a more extended tour of the papers): The overview webpage for the series: "Sustainable Access to Effective Antibiotics." Okeke et al., Executive Summary: Lancet Series on Sustainable Access to Effective Antibiotics Okeke et al., Sustainable Access to Antibiotics 1: The scope of the antimicrobial resistance challenge Key message: (bacterial) AMR is a major barrier to achieving the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Lewnard et al., Sustainable Access to Antibiotics 2: Burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries avertible by existing interventions: an evidence review and modelling analysis Key messages:...
Notes: Newsflash ... BARDA have...
Aside: If you've enjoyed the...
Dear All,See also this related...
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Dear All (Wonkish alert! Coffee-up!),Today...
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Chemical vs. drugs (Part 2): How do you discriminate? / More on halicin
This newsletter is part of a series — here are the links to Part 1, (this one is Part 2), Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. Also relevant
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FDA AMDAC – Developing Single-Pathogen agents for P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii
Dear All (and with apologies … long note alert!): Yesterday’s AMDAC was very productive. For reference, all the materials are here and a reasonably detailed set of
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IDSA White Paper on developing narrow-spectrum antimicrobials + editorial by G. Drusano
Dear All (long note alert … there’s a lot of material below my signature): Just published today is an IDSA White Paper entitled “Developing Antimicrobial
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Lessons in Discovery from Lynn Silver + Pro-con on alternatives to antibiotics
Dear All: “Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions … and paying attention.” You’ve probably heard the first part of that
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Melinta goes bankrupt / Never let a good crisis go to waste
Dear All (long-ish, wonk-ish note alert … lots of details to absorb): This newsletter has a followup here. Sadly, Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. declared bankruptcy just
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New mechanisms for antibiotic reimbursement in the United States: CMS’s IPPS FY2020 Final Rule
Dear All (and with thanks to Kevin Outterson for substantial help with this newsletter), On August 2, 2019, the US government agency that administrates Medicare &
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UK to expand NHS Subscription Pilot! Consultation Period launches
Dear All (and with thanks to Kevin for co-authoring), The UK NHS England Pilot is known to us all as the first real attempt at an antibiotic
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COVID-19 and the Long-Term Trajectory of AMR Efforts: Wellcome Trust Deep Dive
Dear All (Wonkish alert! Coffee-up!), Today we have something special: A deep-dive into the future trajectory of AMR-related work developed by Wellcome Trust. The newly
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Developing systemic & inhaled antibiotics for lung infections
Dear All: I missed it personally, but by all reports the session on 3 June 2017 at ASM Microbe entitled “Development of New Drugs and
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NIAID workshop: What is a robust PK-PD package?
Dear All: The ~150 of us who gathered in Washington yesterday and today for the NIAID’s PK-PD workshop enjoyed a very rich conversation. It’s really
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Global survey of novel antibiotic reimbursement models / PASTEUR Act introduced to US House
Dear All (wonkish alert, but the details are fascinating … and with thanks to Kevin Outterson for co-authoring!), Two related items of note for today.
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In Praise of Non-Inferiority
Dear All (wonkish but intended for everybody to read and absorb): 27 Jan 2021 update: This topic now has its own YouTube video! As the
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AMR TL;DR
1/5 videos
1
Tragedy Of The (Antibiotic) Commons: How economists (and Finance Ministers) think…
34:03
2
Ex-US new antibiotic access: Multi-year delays, even in Europe! - TL;DR
17:03
3
Developing Antibiotics For Children: There Are No Easy Answers - TL;DR
05:15
4
G7 Finance Ministers Call For Pull; US-Specific Text Cites PASTEUR And A PASTEUR Backup Plan - TL;DR
04:50
5
Updated Access To Medicine Foundation AMR Benchmark! Signs Of Progress But Access Lags - TL;DR
12:32
Have you used a fire extinguisher today? Are you using one now?
Even when there isn’t a fire, you’re using a fire extinguisher. You bought it, you stored it, and you know it will work.
Antibiotics are to infections as fire extinguishers are to fires.
Fire fighters know their tools will put out the biggest of flames but the same cannot be said for physicians.
Antibiotics provide a safety net for all of health care. This safety net is beginning to fall apart because of issues like superbugs, failing agent development pipelines, and problematic economic models.
The fire department isn't paid per fire.
You don't buy a fire extinguisher as the fire is breaking out.
It's time to change how we view the #FireExtinguishersOfMedicine.
The bipartisan PASTEUR Act is the strongest bill ever written to strengthen antibiotic development and use. It will fix our market failures, expand the pipeline for next generation antibiotics, and save lives. We can’t sit on our hands as this public health crisis arrives – we have to act now.
I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.