AMSTERDAM and DAVOS, Switzerland, January 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
The first independent analysis of pharmaceutical
industry efforts to tackle drug resistance,
published today, finds that as well as
developing new drugs companies are also
dismantling the incentives that encourage sales staff to
oversell antibiotics, setting limits on the concentration of
antibiotics in factory wastewater released into the
environment, and tracking the spread of
superbugs.
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In the Antimicrobial Resistance
Benchmark, GSK and Johnson & Johnson lead
among the large research-based pharmaceutical companies, while
Mylan leads the generic medicine manufacturers and Entasis leads in
the biotechnology group. The Benchmark finds room for all
companies to improve, as well as evidence of good practice.
"If we don't use antibiotics in the
right doses or for the right bugs, we risk giving bacteria a
chance to adapt and strengthen their defences, which will
make it harder to kill them the next time. The threat
that once-deadly infections could again become
life-threatening is intensifying," said Jayasree K. Iyer, Executive Director of the
Access to Medicine Foundation, which publishes the Benchmark.
"Pharmaceutical companies have a critical contribution to
make to the effort to tackle superbugs."
Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness at an increasing
rate, accelerated mostly by their misuse in humans, animals and
crops. The drugs must be used sparingly, in order to minimise the
chances for bacteria to outsmart them. There is now wide
recognition at the highest political levels that more needs to be
done urgently to slow the pace of antimicrobial resistance (AMR),
with AMR initiatives being launched by the United Nations, the G7
and G20. Bringing drug resistance under control requires
coordinated action from governments, policy-makers and public
health authorities, doctors, farmers and pharmaceutical companies,
as well as patients. Most companies in the Benchmark have signed up
to industry-wide commitments, as set out in the January 2016 Davos Declaration on Combating
Antimicrobial Resistance.
The Benchmark compares how a cross-section of the pharmaceutical
industry is responding to the threat from drug-resistant
infections. It measures the 30 most active players in antimicrobial
development and production and includes multinational
pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms and manufacturers of
generic medicines. The main areas tracked are: R&D for new
antimicrobials, policies for ensuring antibiotics are manufactured
responsibly, and approaches to ensure antimicrobials are accessible
and used wisely. Information was gathered and cross-checked from
multiple sources.
"While pharmaceutical companies are addressing AMR,
for most of them, this is only the start. Yes, there
are important new medicines in the pipeline -
but it is widely accepted that there are not enough to replace
the ones that no longer work. The Benchmark
uncovered a few very good examples
of companies addressing access and stewardship for
individual products," Iyer said.
The leaders
GSK and Johnson & Johnson lead the eight large
research-based pharmaceutical companies included in the Benchmark.
GSK has the most antimicrobial medicines in its R&D pipeline,
including for pathogens experts view as the highest priority
targets for AMR. GSK is one of only two companies to fully separate
bonuses from the volume of antibiotic sales, removing the incentive
for sales staff to oversell antibiotics. Johnson & Johnson
focuses its attention on tuberculosis (TB): access to its
breakthrough medicine for multidrug-resistant TB is being tightly
controlled through national TB programmes. These leaders are
followed by Novartis, Pfizer and Sanofi together. Pfizer performs
particularly well in stewardship measures, while Sanofi is stronger
in R&D. Novartis' delivers a consistently solid performance in
most areas.
Biotechnology firms have a critical role to play in developing
new antimicrobials. Among the 12 the Benchmark covers, Entasis
leads, particularly when it comes to planning ahead to help ensure
successful candidates will be made accessible but also used wisely.
It is followed by Polyphor, Summit and Tetraphase in joint second
place.
Generics manufacturers account for the majority of antibiotics
sold today, giving them significant power to slow the growth of
antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In comparison with the other
companies analysed, the level of transparency in this group is low.
The leaders in this group show a more defined response than that of
their peers, addressing either affordability or the rational use of
their products. Of the 10 evaluated, Mylan leads, with the
strongest performance in several areas, including an equitable
pricing approach and environmental risk-management strategy. Mylan
is followed by Cipla then Fresenius Kabi.
"One of the strongest messages to come out of the
Benchmark is the huge power of generics
companies to stop the superbugs. These
companies produce the largest volumes of
antibiotics, and have been doing this for
decades. Some have only recently
started tackling AMR. If they can be encouraged to really
step up, we will see a big
impact."
The Benchmark's key findings include:
- There are 28 antibiotics in later stages of development that
target the pathogens deemed critical AMR priorities by the WHO
and/or US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, only
two of these 28 candidates are supported by plans to ensure they
can be both made accessible and used wisely if they reach the
market.
- Nearly half of companies evaluated are involved in efforts to
track patterns in drug resistance, with AMR surveillance programmes
of different scales running in 147 countries. Pneumonia is the most
widely tracked infection. Pfizer is running the most
programmes.
- Eight companies are setting limits on the concentration of
antibiotics that manufacturing wastewaters can contain before they
can be released into the environment. Four companies require
suppliers to also meet these standards: GSK, Johnson & Johnson,
Pfizer and Roche. More information is needed on what these limits
are and no company reveals what is released in practice.
- Four companies are taking steps to separate sales agent's
bonuses from the volume of antibiotics they sell. GSK and Shionogi
have fully separated the two globally, Pfizer is piloting that
approach in certain locations, and Novartis is in the process of
adjusting the incentives for its sales teams.
How the Benchmark compares
The Benchmark measures companies against the consensus view on
areas where they can and should be contributing to efforts to limit
AMR. The Access to Medicine Foundation defined these areas by
engaging top experts and a broad range of stakeholders in
antimicrobial resistance and global health in a rigorous process to
develop the methodology for the Benchmark. The Benchmark was
designed to have the flexibility to be sensitive to differences
between the companies when it comes to the focus of their business,
their portfolios and strategies. The Antimicrobial Resistance
Benchmark is made possible with financial support from UK
Department for International Development and the Dutch Ministry of
Health, Welfare and Sports.
Note to editors:
Media materials:
The graphs & figures from the Key Findings and other figures
in the report are available upon request.
About the Access to Medicine Foundation:
The Access to Medicine Foundation, which publishes the
Benchmark, is an independent non-profit organisation based in
the Netherlands. It aims to
advance access to medicine in low- and middle-income countries by
stimulating and guiding the pharmaceutical industry to play a
greater role in improving access to medicine.
For 10 years, the Foundation has been building consensus on the
role of the pharmaceutical industry in improving access to medicine
and vaccines. It publishes the Access to Medicine Index every two
years, with the next Index due in late 2018. In 2017, the
Foundation published the first Access to Vaccines Index. This is
the first Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark.