Development of a Sustainable Market for New, Resistance-Breaking Antibiotics

National and international organizations in academic research, medicine, the pharmaceutical industry and global health are calling for market-based incentives for more activities to develop new, resistance-breaking antibiotics. In order to strengthen research and development on all levels, it is important to invigorate the economic ecosystem and to attract more scientists. In contrast, today the funding measures for antibiotic research are limited to some individual stages of the development process prior to approval. Some concepts for such mechanisms qualifying for effective pull effects have been presented during the last couple of years. Most recently, the EU Commission suggested Transferrable Exclusivity Vouchers (TEEs) as a feasible way forward, with mixed reactions among member states.

We want to shed light on the economic environment of antibiotics research and development and discuss the various concrete options for scaling up activities in this field. One interesting aspect of them is that only their combination will achieve the necessary scale to create the economic basis for a sustainable pipeline of new antibiotics.