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PRESS RELEASE: Under embargo until 00:00 CET on 3 April 2014
Joining forces globally against drug resistant bacteria
Antibiotics have saved millions of lives from once deadly infectious diseases. But, misuse of
antibiotics and other antimicrobials in humans and animals has led to bacteria evolving resistance.
Today, 3 April 2013 in Brussels, the Joint Programme on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR)
presented its strategic research agenda which outlines the steps that need to be taken to minimise
antimicrobial resistance, one of today’s most serious public health threats. In addition to the 19
countries which include European countries as well as Canada and Israel, already signed up to this
initiative, JPIAMR received support from countries ranging from Australia to South Africa during this
meeting.
“It’s a worldwide concern that resistance to antimicrobial drugs, which have allowed us to treat or
prevent deadly infections and save many lives, especially children, is now spreading all over the
world at increased speed, related with the increased mobility of people. It’s therefore crucial to
immediately join forces under one research agenda to achieve a substantial and rapid impact,
especially on global health threats like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria”, said Fulvio Esposito from the
Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research.
Coming together globally is indeed crucial as the problem of antimicrobial resistance is so wide that
the world now seems to be entering a post-antibiotic era in which sophisticated clinical
interventions such as organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy or care for pre-term infants will
become far more difficult due the threats of infections with multi-drug resistant bacteria. Resistance
is so widespread that for some groups of bacteria, few antibiotics are effective enough anymore for
therapy.
The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA)
JPIAMR has identified six priority topics which form a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA). These topics
will give the fight against antibiotic resistance a multidimensional approach. The idea is that these
approaches will be translated into new prevention and intervention strategies that improve the
public health and wellbeing of populations and delivers economic and societal benefits throughout
Europe and beyond.
1. Therapeutics: Improvement of current antibiotics and development of new antibiotics and
alternatives for antibiotics, such as vaccines.
2. Diagnostics: Improvement of diagnostics and development of new (rapid) diagnostics to
stimulate better use of current antibiotics and support the development and use of new
antibiotics and alternatives to antibiotics.
3. Surveillance: Establishment of an international, standardised surveillance programme for
AMR and antibiotic use in human, and agricultural settings.
4. Transmission: A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary understanding of the transmission
mechanisms by which antibiotic resistance can spread between bacterial populations and
between different (animal and human) reservoirs and to translate this knowledge into the
development of evidence-based strategies to minimize the spread of resistance.
5. Environment: Assessment of the contribution of pollution of the environment with
antibiotics, antibiotic residues and resistant bacteria on the spread of AMR and the
development of strategies to minimize environmental contamination by antibiotics and
resistant bacteria.
6. Interventions: Study of preventative and control interventions that focus on improved
antibiotic stewardship, compliance and prevention of transmission of AMR and to determine
and improve their efficacy.
“As this is an active research field and AMR is a very real and present societal challenge, the strategic
research agenda will need to stay a living document that is continuously updated to keep pace with
developments within research and society, “said Mats Ulfendahl, Swedish Research Council.
Operating at all relevant levels, from the scientific community to research funders and from policy
makers and societal stakeholders to industry and SMEs, is the only way to reduce the inappropriate
use of antibiotic use both in humans and animals to stop this trend from continuing and to
ultimately find a more sustainable way to use antibiotics and treat disease.
Therefore, assisted by European Commission funding, the International Medicines Initiative (IMI),
national funding contributions and public-private partnerships, the next step for JPIAMR is to fund
research which fit within the six priority areas and which will contribute towards solving the AMR
problem.
Notes to editors
For more information contact:
Laura Marin, Project Manager
Swedish Research Council
[email protected]
Phone: +46 8 546 44 119
Sofia Kuhn, Communications Manager
[email protected]
Phone: +32 486 67 39 42
Project website: www.jpiamr.eu
The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA): http://www.jpiamr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/JPIAMRSRA-v1.pdf
Why JPIAMR?
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Antimicrobial resistance is a real threat to the lives of European citizens.
Research of antimicrobial resistance in Europe is fragmented and few countries have specific
programs dedicated to this field of research.
19 Member states have joined forces in the Joint Programme Initiative on Antimicrobial
Resistance (JPIAMR) to coordinate the research, in order to allow greater impact and avoid
duplication.
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Only by bringing together industry, public health and academic bodies to share experiences
and resources across scientific disciplines will we be able to create long term reduction of
antimicrobial resistance in Europe.
Aims
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JPIAMR will develop scientific proposals which will lead to sustainable use of antibiotics to
treat infectious diseases and to a decrease in the number of patients with resistant
infections in Europe.
It aims to integrate relevant scientific fields across national borders and to create a common
Strategic Research Agenda with a shared common vision where the best resources and
capabilities are coordinated.
JPIAMR provides the forum and platform for initiating and coordinating joint actions with
stakeholders beyond issuing joint calls.
Objectives
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Find routes for novel antibiotics and new anti-infectious strategies.
Scientifically validate means to increase the number of patients treated early with the
appropriate antimicrobial.
Provide scientific evidence on ways to reduce the spread of resistant strains.
Provide scientific evidence on strategies to reduce the number of patients with resistant or
MDR strains, at any level of antibiotic consumption.
Reduce the consumption of antibiotics.
What is joint programming?
Research efforts can be essential to address major societal challenges. In some cases these are so
great that national research programmes cannot tackle them effectively on their own. In addition,
the vast bulk of research programmes in Europe are run in an isolated way, leading to unwanted
fragmentation or ineffectiveness. Joint programming aims to remedy this situation.
Joint programmes aim to pool national research efforts in order to make better use of Europe’s
public R&D resources and to tackle common European challenges more effectively in a few key
areas.
The ultimate objective is to overcome the fragmentation of national research programmes to
address global challenges.
More information www.jpiamr.eu