A Refunding Scheme to Incentivize Narrow-Spectrum Antibiotic Development

Abstract

The rapid rise of antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to global public health. The situation is exacerbated by the “antibiotics dilemma”: Developing narrow-spectrum antibiotics against resistant bacteria is most beneficial for society, but least attractive for companies, since their usage and sales volumes are more limited than for broad-spectrum drugs. After developing a general mathematical framework for the study of antibiotic resistance dynamics with an arbitrary number of antibiotics, we identify efficient treatment protocols. Then, we introduce a market-based refunding scheme that incentivizes pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics against resistant bacteria and, in particular, narrow-spectrum antibiotics that target specific bacterial strains. We illustrate how such a refunding scheme can solve the antibiotics dilemma and cope with various sources of uncertainty that impede antibiotic R &D. Finally, connecting our refunding approach to the recently established Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Action Fund, we discuss how our proposed incentivization scheme could be financed.

Preliminary Studies on the Mechanism of Antifungal Activity of New Cationic β-Glucan Derivatives Obtained from Oats and Barley

“…This state of things means that antifungal drugs are most often used according to broad-spectrum antibiotic tactics without identifying the species attacking the patient. This approach is associated with much controversy among medical practitioners, and although lucrative for the pharmaceutical industry, which does not have to invest heavily in drug discovery, it is unacceptable in the long run. It would be advisable for the treatment of such diseases to focus on targeted therapy and the idea of narrow-spectrum antibiotics in the design of new families of active structures because of the phenomenon of drug resistance and the increasing number of patients. , An interesting target for the biological activity of new antimycotic compounds is the fungal membrane, which is characterized by a high degree of diversity across species and at the same time is dramatically different in terms of composition from the membrane of bacteria and higher organisms.…”