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Written question asked by Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party) on Wednesday, 11 March 2020, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 March 2020. It was answered by Lord Bethell (Conservative) on Monday, 23 March 2020 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1925), (1) whether they will provide a breakdown of how the £360 million invested in antimicrobial resistance research since 2014 was spent, (2) what assessment they have made of the outcomes from the investment in antimicrobial resistance to date, and (3) what is their strategy for incentivising the pharmaceutical industry to develop antibiotics.

Answer

The breakdown of the United Kingdom’s investment into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development since 2014 is set out in the following table:

Investment amount

Item

UK domestic investment

£46 million

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): Cross-Research Council AMR initiative

£10 million

Nesta: The Longitude Prize

£20 million

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) AMR-themed call

Approximately £8 million

NIHR-funded Health Protection Research Units: Healthcare-Associated Infections and AMR

£55 million

Department of Health and Social Care: AMR capital funding

£4 million

Medical Research Council (MRC): Antimicrobial Target Discovery and Validation

UK international investment/ official development assistance

£41 million

UKRI: Research Councils

£8.8 million

NIHR: Global Health Research programme

£12 million

Joint MRC/NIHR: 3-4 research consortia to identify the primary drivers of AMR in a global context.

£60.5 million (initial investment £50 million)*

Department of Health and Social Care: Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF)

Other investment

£107 million

Interdisciplinary AMR research (investments announced at United Nations General Assembly)

Note:

*Through GAMRIF, push funding into AMR research in development for low-and-middle income countries has also been used to leverage approximately £41 million from other funders.

Independent research, commissioned and funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme, has been conducted on the implementation of the UK five-year AMR Strategy 2013-18, including an assessment of research activity. This evaluation will become publicly available following independent peer review.

The UK is undertaking world-leading work on potential solutions that address pharmaceutical market failure by testing an innovative model for the evaluation and purchase of antimicrobials. For our work to have the full effect, we need other countries to offer similar incentives in their own domestic markets, alongside regional or global market incentives solutions. The UK has taken the lead in lobbying for tangible commitments on market incentives in the 2019 G20 Leaders’ declaration and is working with a number of like-minded countries to advocate for clear, next steps from all G20 members.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL2493
Session
2019-21
Related items
Antibiotics: Research
Friday, 6 March 2020
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Antibiotics Expenditure Research Drug resistance Antimicrobials
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk