Source: 08 June 2022 Inserm press summary
Replay of the conference on this link
“If nothing is done, antibiotic resistance will cause more deaths than cancer or cardiovascular diseases in 2050” stated Stewart Cole, CEO of the Institut Pasteur, at the opening of the international symposium “Research and innovation to reduce the burden of antibiotic resistance” jointly organised by Inserm and Institut Pasteur. This event was held on June 7th, 2022, at PariSanté Campus in Paris, France, in the framework of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (PFUE 2022) under the high patronage of the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI).
“Research efforts need to be accelerated in order to improve knowledge and innovation in this field, as well as to refine our policies and practices,” declared Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of ANRS|MIE – the French agency dedicated to emerging infectious diseases – and Head of the I3M Institute (Institute of Immunology, Inflammation, Infectiology and Microbiology).
Every day, more bacteria become resistant to commonly used antibiotics, so that infectious diseases considered to be of the past are killing again, or becoming difficult to treat.
In 2019, 5 million people died worldwide due to antibiotic resistance, according to a study published in January 2022 in the scientific journal “The Lancet”. “Antibiotic resistance costs as much as €1.1 billion per year to health systems in countries accross the European Union ” deplored Michele Cecchini, responsible for public health thematics at the OECD.
In response to this growing threat, several actions are currently undertaken in order to support scientific research in conjunction with clinicians and pharmaceutical companies. Notably, these actions aim to identify new therapies, and develop diagnostic and prevention strategies. As the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance equally concerns human and animal health as well as the environment, this challenging task requires a global research approach known as “One Health”.
The member states of the European Union launched a major programme in 2011 entitled JPI-AMR (Joint programming initiative on antimicrobial resistance). This programme, which has since been joined by other countries outside the European Union, has resulted in a total investment of more than 127 million euros in antimicrobial resistance research. In order to increase research efforts in this area, the Member States and the European Commission are expected to launch a larger programme called the One-Health AMR partnership in 2025. The preparation of this partnership has been entrusted to several countries, including France, represented by the ANR (National Research Agency).
The french priority research programme “PPR Antibiorésistance” led by Inserm was launched in 2020 with a budget of 40 million euros. It aims to develop new strategies, catalyse innovation and better understand the resistance phenomenon from biological, medical, social, economic and regulatory perspectives.
The discussions held on June 7th, 2022, provided a panoramic view of the major issues regarding antibiotic resistance at a global level. As far as Big data are concerned, numerous initiatives meant to collect, harmonise, process and make open source data available have already been launched. These initiatives must be developed and sustained over the years.
The role of the environment– as a source of pharmaceutical molecules and resistant bacterial strains – in the emergence of antibiotic resistance and it’s dissemination needs further investigation. Hospital effluents could thus be the subject of more research and monitoring, as well as effluents from drug producing industries accross the world.
Research in social sciences shows that the pharmaceutical market structure (availability of antibiotics, prices, distribution, etc.) has an impact on drug usage and therefore on the emergence of antibiotic resistance, in both high or low income countries.
“Over the last four years, biotechnology companies active in the field of antibiotic resistance have lost 75% of their value on average,” alarmed Marc Lemonnier (ANTABIO SAS). According to this member of the Beam Alliance board, which gathers 70 French biotechnology companies, incentive measures should be implemented to dissociate companie’s incomes from their sales volume.
“The fight against antibiotic resistance should be raised higher in our action priorities,” concluded Yazdan Yazdanpanah at the end of the symposium.
Contact: Evelyne Jouvin Marche, Coordinator of the Priority Research Programme on Antibiotic resistance, Inserm.
Press contact: presse@inserm.fr
The video broadcast of the conference will be available soon (in English).