The FINANCIAL -- Brussels, the voice of the research-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe, welcomes the publication today of the European Commission’s “Strategy and Action Plan to Tackle the Threat of Antibiotic Resistance”.

The threat to public health from antibiotic resistance requires bold thinking followed by bold action. Building on the initiative of the Swedish EU Presidency of 2009 in putting this issue on the table, today’s announcement follows a series of discussions over the course of this year and illustrates the strong will to address this issue in partnership.

Urging renewed commitment, EFPIA President Andrew Witty commented: “Antibiotic resistance is a major challenge throughout the world and one that we need to take seriously. It is a challenge that the pharmaceutical industry wants to be part of solving.

What we are committed to, is to work with other stakeholders to find a new approach which allows this research to be restimulated, restarted, and allows us to be successful in re-equipping our medicines chests with effective antibiotics which will be available on the day we need them. So that when we do have a fundamental bacterial challenge we are able to protect ourselves.”The Innovative Medicines Initiative Europe's largest public-private initiative, jointly-funded by EFPIA and the European Commission, which operates to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients, presents a strong mechanism to “kick-start” the process of revitalising antibiotic research.

EFPIA welcomes the news that IMI is considering a new large-scale programme to progress the discovery and development of novel antibiotic drugs to treat the most urgent infections and the complementary measures being taken by the Commission to step up research efforts and stimulate the coordination of research activities within EU Member States.

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