Rejuvenating the Global Antibiotic Innovation Ecosystem : CSE

Date: 21st Nov 23 Tuesday / Time: 5:30 pm to 7 pm / Platform : Zoom

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable. The scenario today demands using knowledge to bring about change. In other words, working India’s democracy. This is what we aim to do.The challenge, we see, is two-pronged. On the one hand, millions live within a biomass based subsistence economy, at the margins of survival. The environment is their only natural asset. But a degraded environment means stress on land, water and forest resources for survival. It means increasing destitution and poverty. Here, opportunity to bring about change is enormous.But it will need a commitment to reform – structural reform- in the way we do business with local communities. On the other hand, rapid industrialization is throwing up new problems: growing toxification and a costly disease burden. The answers will be in reinventing the growth model of the Western world for ourselves, so that we can leapfrog technology choices and find new ways of building wealth that will not cost us the earth. Our aim is to raise these concerns, participate in seeking answers and in pushing for answers, transforming these into policy and so practice. We do this through our research and by communicating our understanding through our publications.

In addition to the need to conserve existing antibiotics, it is critical to develop new antibiotics which address the current and future unmet need, and are affordable and accessible to everyone as well. But the existing antibiotic pipeline is weak and holds limited promise for future treatment options.

Our recent assessment has shown that globally, big pharmaceutical companies have left the space of antibiotic research and development. On the other hand, small and medium scale companies are facing challenges and ongoing initiatives to promote innovation are less than adequate. It is clear that reforms are needed to rejuvenate the antibiotic innovation ecosystem for a sustainable and equitable antibiotic access. We had suggested that should include, greater public financing, coordinated global response from governments, right balance b/w publicprivate partnerships. We had also suggested that it is time to discuss if antibiotics can be considered as a ‘global public good’.

Our findings and suggestions have been discussed with global and national experts as part of our series – The Antibiotic Webinars. It became clear that antibiotic access needs to be integrated into reforms; the need for coordination, collaboration and prioritisation is much greater; nonfinancing measures can play an important role; and there are challenges as well as possibilities of considering antibiotics/any aspect of AMR response as a ‘global public good’, which will be presented in detail during the webinar.

We bring you our final webinar in “The Antibiotic Webinars’ series.

Please note: This is a free Zoom webinar, and registration is open to all. All those who register will receive an automatic confirmation. However, the webinar can accommodate a limited number of attendees on a first come-first served basis only. Therefore, please try to join 5 minutes before the scheduled time.

FOR MORE DETAILS, CONTACT

Sukanya Nair
sukanya.nair@cseindia.org
+91 88168 18864

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