Antibiotic resistance growing menace in BRICS: Jim O’Neill
February 11, 2016, 5:42 pm

Data released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) shows that China consumed 162,000 tons of antibiotics in 2013, or more than half of the global total [Xinhua]

The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), chaired by British Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill, was announced by UK Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2014.

Although there are many new areas of scientific research emerging that could become alternatives to antibiotics, the report warns “the current pace of progress and funding offers little to no hope that new products will be available in the next five to ten years”.

The UK report says any use of antibiotics promotes the development and spread of multi-drug-resistant infections, or superbugs.

“Drug-resistant infections, in particular tuberculosis, already have a huge human and economic impact in the so-called BRICS countries. As the latest report from my Review sets out today, vaccines and alternative approaches have a key role to play in preventing infections so we use less antibiotics – which reduces drug-resistance. Without global action to tackle this problem it is sadly likely that the human and economic cost will grow far higher, for the BRICS and the rest of the world, with 10 million worldwide deaths a year predicted by 2050, and more than 30% of those alone in the BRICS countries,” Jim O’Neill told The BRICS Post on Thursday.

Research by scientists at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows China consumed 162,000 tons of antibiotics in 2013, or more than half of the global total. About 52 per cent was used on livestock and 48 percent by humans. More than 50,000 tons ended up in the water and soil.

AMR or ‘antimicrobial resistance’ is the term used to describe drug-resistant infections, sometimes referred to as ‘superbugs’. Antimicrobials include antibiotics (which act only on bacteria), antivirals, antiparasitics and antifungals.

AMR UK said last year research and development must be aimed at producing about 15 new licensed antibiotics every 10 years.

O’Neill has proposed a global innovation fund of $2bn over five years to boost research into new drugs and diagnostic tests, with most of the money going to universities and small biotechnology companies. The big pharmaceutical companies would be asked to make substantial contributions to the fund.

“To contain the emergence of drug resistance globally, all these interventions will need to be designed to deliver access to the patients who need them, wherever they are and regardless of levels of income. No single country can insulate its citizens from emerging superbugs if they are left to proliferate somewhere else,” the report warns.

“Another key to global access will lie in more academic teams and companies developing new products where most patients live and at prices they can afford, such as India, China, South Africa, Russia or Brazil,” it adds.

AMR UK will produce its definitive recommendations to Cameron in May 2016, setting out a package of actions to tackle drug-resistant infections globally.

In O’Neill’s first report, he estimated antibiotic and microbial resistance could kill an extra 10 million people a year and cost up to $100 trillion by 2050 if it is not brought under control.

TBP