The UK has invested £210mn to track superbugs in Asia and Africa in order to combat antimicrobial resistance in Britain before these pathogens reach the country.
The funding announcement was made on Wednesday, as Health Secretary Steve Barclay traveled to India to attend his first G20 meeting of health ministers. Discussions will include AMR.
Some studies estimate that antimicrobial resistance is as deadly as HIV or malaria.
Barclay has said that antimicrobial resistant is a silent killer and a significant threat to public health.
He said: “It is vital that it be stopped at its source. This record funding will enable countries most at-risk to combat it and prevent more deaths across the globe, making us safer in our own homes.”
According to the UK government, AMR was responsible for between 7,000-35 000 deaths in 2019. Experts warn a resistant bug can cause a pandemic and hinder vital treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy that depend on infection control.
There has been a global shortage of new antibiotics due to a lack of incentives for drugmakers. Generic drugs are inexpensive and must be used sparingly in order to prevent resistance.
Britain is planning to expand the subscription-based model whereby it pays a fixed amount to drug companies for the supply of antibiotics.
The UK announced last month that it will pay up to £20mn per year for each antibiotic prescribed, regardless of how many were sold.
Barclay stated that some G20 countries are interested in implementing the same subscription model as a way to solve the market failure.
The US has proposed an idea similar to this in the Pasteur Act which is yet to be passed by Congress. Meanwhile, the EU is exploring other ways to encourage investment from pharmaceutical companies.
Incentives aimed at Western countries won’t solve the problem for developing economies where antibiotics, which are freely available, are often used excessively.
The UK’s latest funding, taken from health department budgets, will support the Fleming Fund. This fund was established by the UK government in 2015 to combat antimicrobial resistance.
The funding will go towards laboratories, disease surveillance systems, and an increase in the global workforce for increased surveillance of pathogens that could be problematic, especially in 25 countries with the highest threat, such as Indonesia, Ghana, and Kenya.
The UK will partner with India in surveillance and invest PS3mn to fund genomic sequencing technologies that can quickly identify pathogens developing resistant.