AMR Alliance Japan held a Diet Member briefing about “Creating Pull Incentives to Spur the Development of Antimicrobials.”

Despite the growing threat of antimicrobials resistance (AMR) – the natural process by which the germs that cause infectious disease grow immune to existing antimicrobials over time – the world has seen a decline in the development of novel antimicrobials since the 1980s.

This problem has arisen from a market failure. It can take 10-15 years and over US$1 billion to develop an antimicrobial. Once an antimicrobial is approved for use, it is important to take care not to overuse it. As a result, new antimicrobials typically see low sales, and companies face problems in covering post-approval costs. This issue has led to the collapse of multiple companies that developed antimicrobials in recent years.

AMR Alliance Japan (Secretariat: Health and Global Policy Institute) has been serving as secretariat for the Nikkei FT Communicable Diseases Conference Asia Africa Asia Medical Innovation Consortium (AMIC) AMR Consortium. The AMR Consortium has developed recommendations on “pull incentives” for antimicrobial development that could solve the above issues.

For this Diet Briefing, HGPI invited two speakers to discuss the realization of pull incentives in Japan. Afterward, there was a question and answer session with the Diet Members.

Recommendations on Pull Incentives for AMR in Japan Executive Summary

■Program

Explanatory Introduction
Matt McEnany (Senior Manager, HGPI)

Presentation 1
“The Threat of AMR and the Need for Countermeasures”
Dr. Norio Ohmagari (Director of the AMR Clinical Reference Center and Director of the Disease Control and Prevention Center of the National of Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM))

Presentation 2
“Recommendations from the AMR Consortium: Realizing a Pull Incentive”
Dr. Kazumasa Oguro (Professor, Faculty of Economics, Hosei University)

【About AMR Alliance Japan】
AMR Alliance Japan was established in November 2018 as multi-stakeholder, collaborative organization dedicated to the improvement of public health through the promotion of AMR countermeasures. As of June 2021, its members include, in alphabetical order: The Japan Medical Association; The Japan Pharmaceutical Association; The Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association; The Japan Society of Hospital Pharmacists; The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases; The Japanese Society for Chemotherapy; The Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology; The Japanese Society for Medical Mycology; The Japanese Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases; The Japanese Society of Infection Prevention and Control; The Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences; The Japanese Society of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring; MSD K.K.; Shionogi & Co., Ltd.; Nippon Becton Dickinson Co., Ltd.; Pfizer Inc.; The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. The Health and Global Policy Institute serves as the Secretariat of AMR Alliance Japan.