Can a Federally Funded 'Netflix Model' Fix the Broken Antibiotics Market?
Shortages and drug-resistant germs have renewed attention on a $6 billion proposal to Congress that would reconfigure the way antimicrobial drugs are developed and sold.
Recent shortages of amoxicillin, an effective antibiotic that pediatricians have long relied on to treat strep throat and ear infections in children, highlighted an urgent global threat: the shrinking global arsenal of potent antibiotics and the lack of incentives to develop them.
The market breaking new antimicrobial drugs has sparked debate over a bill, languishing in Congress, that would radically reconfigure the way antibiotics are discovered and sold in the United States.
The measurement of 6 billion dollars, the Pasteur law, would upend the conventional model that ties antibiotic profits to sales volume by creating a subscription-like system that would provide pharmaceutical companies with an upfront payment in return for unlimited access to a drug once It is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Some call it the Netflix model for antibiotics.
Measure tries to address vexing antibiotic economics: Promising new drugs often gather dust on pharmacy shelves because healthcare providers prefer to keep them for patients whose infections do not respond to existing ones. This is because the more frequently an antibiotic is used, the faster it will lose its curative effect as the targeted bacteria develop their ability to survive.
New antibiotics also tend to to be expensive, a deterrent for hospital prescribers who often switch to cheaper drugs, making it even more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to recover their initial investment In addition to shortages of drugs that still work, the reduced toolbox of effective antimicrobials has become a silent global market crisis that claims nearly 1.3 million deaths a year. By 2050, the United Nations estimates that drug-resistant pathogens could kill 10 million people a year.
"If we want antibiotics to work for our children, our grandchildren, or ourselves 10 years from now, we need to invest in infrastructure today,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of CARB-X, a nonprofit that funds small biotech developing new antibiotics.
By separating profits from sales volume, proponents of the bill hope prescribers will save new drugs for patients whose infections are resistant to existing drugs. Limiting their use, experts say, can help extend the life of a new antibiotic before evolutionary pressure creates a "superbug" nearly unresponsive to available antimicrobials.
The bill, a decade in the making, enjoys bipartisan support and is widely backed by researchers, health care policy experts and pharmaceutical company executives. But as momentum for the bill has grown, opposition has emerged from a small group of doctors and health care advocates, many of whom are critical of Big Pharma. They say the bill is a giveaway from the pharmaceutical industry - and is unlikely to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Prospects for the legislation looked bleak in the final weeks of a lame session in which lawmakers often rush to pass unfinished legislation. Cost concerns had already prompted primarily Republican lawmakers to cut its $5 billion price tag, and Congr...
Shortages and drug-resistant germs have renewed attention on a $6 billion proposal to Congress that would reconfigure the way antimicrobial drugs are developed and sold.
Recent shortages of amoxicillin, an effective antibiotic that pediatricians have long relied on to treat strep throat and ear infections in children, highlighted an urgent global threat: the shrinking global arsenal of potent antibiotics and the lack of incentives to develop them.
The market breaking new antimicrobial drugs has sparked debate over a bill, languishing in Congress, that would radically reconfigure the way antibiotics are discovered and sold in the United States.
The measurement of 6 billion dollars, the Pasteur law, would upend the conventional model that ties antibiotic profits to sales volume by creating a subscription-like system that would provide pharmaceutical companies with an upfront payment in return for unlimited access to a drug once It is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Some call it the Netflix model for antibiotics.
Measure tries to address vexing antibiotic economics: Promising new drugs often gather dust on pharmacy shelves because healthcare providers prefer to keep them for patients whose infections do not respond to existing ones. This is because the more frequently an antibiotic is used, the faster it will lose its curative effect as the targeted bacteria develop their ability to survive.
New antibiotics also tend to to be expensive, a deterrent for hospital prescribers who often switch to cheaper drugs, making it even more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to recover their initial investment In addition to shortages of drugs that still work, the reduced toolbox of effective antimicrobials has become a silent global market crisis that claims nearly 1.3 million deaths a year. By 2050, the United Nations estimates that drug-resistant pathogens could kill 10 million people a year.
"If we want antibiotics to work for our children, our grandchildren, or ourselves 10 years from now, we need to invest in infrastructure today,” said Kevin Outterson, executive director of CARB-X, a nonprofit that funds small biotech developing new antibiotics.
By separating profits from sales volume, proponents of the bill hope prescribers will save new drugs for patients whose infections are resistant to existing drugs. Limiting their use, experts say, can help extend the life of a new antibiotic before evolutionary pressure creates a "superbug" nearly unresponsive to available antimicrobials.
The bill, a decade in the making, enjoys bipartisan support and is widely backed by researchers, health care policy experts and pharmaceutical company executives. But as momentum for the bill has grown, opposition has emerged from a small group of doctors and health care advocates, many of whom are critical of Big Pharma. They say the bill is a giveaway from the pharmaceutical industry - and is unlikely to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance.
Prospects for the legislation looked bleak in the final weeks of a lame session in which lawmakers often rush to pass unfinished legislation. Cost concerns had already prompted primarily Republican lawmakers to cut its $5 billion price tag, and Congr...
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