Global effort to introduce new antibiotics in healthcare
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Thomas Tängdén is leading the project, which will start by mapping how new antibiotics are introduced into healthcare in different countries. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
Multidrug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem, and new antibiotics are needed to continue to cure infectious diseases in the future. But how should new products be used to prevent bacteria from becoming resistant to them too? That is the focus of the INTRODUCE research project led by Thomas Tängdén, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Medical Sciences and infectious disease doctor at Uppsala University Hospital.
What kind of project is this?
“INTRODUCE is a collaborative project funded by the Swedish Research Council and state funding bodies in other countries under the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR). The project has a budget of around SEK 8.5 million and will run from 2025 to 2027.”
How can you collaborate?
“Researchers in Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Israel and Italy are participating in the project, which is divided into several work packages. We will first map how new antibiotics are introduced into healthcare in different countries. Are they available, who pays for them, are there guidelines on how to use them and monitoring systems for prescriptions and resistance to the new drugs? Based on this, we will simulate different scenarios of benefit and resistance development over time in the different countries. The aim of the project is to understand how to best introduce and utilise the few new antibiotics coming onto the market.”
Why are global guidelines for new antibiotics important?
“Global cooperation on antibiotics is needed as antibiotics are a common resource and resistant bacteria spread easily between countries and continents. If the new drugs are overused in some countries, this will accelerate the development of resistance, which will eventually affect other countries regardless. At the same time, there is a high risk that many patients who need new antibiotics will not have access to them because the cost is too high, especially in low-income countries.”
What do you see as the biggest challenges?
“The biggest challenge is likely to be in the final part of the project, when we will bring together all the relevant stakeholders to agree on a common global plan for the introduction of new antibiotics into healthcare. There is a risk at that point of a conflict of interest between representatives from different sectors such as healthcare, academia, government institutions and industry. But we believe that it will be possible to find a common way forward on this.” Ultimately, everyone benefits if we take care of the valuable new medicines to maximise patient benefit and prevent the development of resistance.”
Åsa Malmberg