The health ministers from United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have announced that they are committed to take action to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the G7 meeting in Berlin, Germany. The G7 health ministers agreed on a number of actions to implement the G7 Leaders Declaration as outlined in the “Berlin Declaration on AMR” The health ministers acknowledged that the emergence of AMR is an increasing global health threat and that infection with AMR pathogens leads to prolonged treatment times, higher mortality, heavy burdens on health systems and high economic impacts. The impact of AMR was put as 700,000 deaths may be caused each year globally by resistant pathogens and compared to a world where AMR did not exist, current AMR rates may cause a GDP contraction in OECD countries which by 2050 would result in cumulative losses of approximately US$2.9 trillion.
One of the three key approaches identified by the health ministers is to engage in research to optimise such approaches and to develop new antimicrobials, vaccines, treatment alternatives and rapid diagnostic tools and called for the strengthening and encouraging of increased R&D of new antimicrobial compounds. The health ministers also stated that they are committed to explore innovative economic incentives to enhance the R&D of new antimicrobial compounds, looking at various instruments such as a global antibiotic research fund and a market entry reward mechanism for truly new antibiotics targeting the most important pathogens.
