A comment by Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) CEO and Board Member Mr. Ryoji Noritake’s comments at “Special Session 1 Establishing a Drug Discovery Ecosystem for Infectious Disease Area – A Year in Review and Future Initiatives -”, “Special Session 2 Importance of Novel Antibacterial Drugs, and Global Collaboration for Expansion of Necessary Pull-type Incentives” and “Special Session 4 Making Breakthroughs With Japan -Toward Accelerating Open Innovation in Japan-” held during the 10th NIKKEI FT Communicable Diseases Conference (hosted by Nikkei Inc. and co-hosted by the Financial Times) was featured in the December 25, 26 and 27 print edition of the Nikkei.

HGPI and AMR Alliance Japan have been addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a global health policy challenge since 2016, facilitating multi-stakeholder discussions and policy recommendations on AMR with stakeholders from industry, government, academia, and civil society. In March 2021, we published policy recommendations to create pull-type incentives for antibiotics, followed by policy recommendations to create a sustainable innovation ecosystem for antibiotic R&D in August 2023. In response to these recommendations and activities, Japan launched a pull-type incentive called “the Antimicrobial Securement Project” in 2023.

Based on the discussions and policy recommendations led by HGPI and AMR Alliance Japan, this article addresses the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships and the roles of industry, government, academia, and civil society in improving the infectious disease R&D system.