Global drug firms want governments to do more against super bug threat

Over 80 international drug and biotech firms have called on governments to join hands wit them to combat drug-resistant super bugs which could kill tens of millions of people within decades unless progress is made on new antibiotics.

In a declaration at the World Economic Forum in Davos, they called for coordinated efforts to cut unnecessary use of antibiotics and support development of new ones, including the creation of new economic models and investment in research.

According to GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Andrew Witty, the difficulty of finding new antibiotics was highlighted by the fact that mass screenings of hundreds of millions of chemicals at GSK and two other large firms over nine years had yielded zero potential new drugs.

"That's not because we are all really stupid. It's because it is a really, really difficult space to make progress in," he said in Davos.

Since new antibiotics would be reserved for emergencies, possible new market models could include upfront payments that delink profits from sales volumes.

''The value assigned to antibiotics and diagnostics often does not reflect the benefits they bring to society, nor the investment required for their creation,'' they say. ''We call on governments to commit to allocating the funds needed to create a sustainable and predictable market for these technologies while also implementing the measures needed to safeguard the effectiveness of antibiotics.''

The Declaration by the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Diagnostics Industries on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance committed the companies-which included both the largest, such as Merck & Co and Pfizer Inc, as also many small biotech firms and makers of diagnostic devices - to a common set of global actions for combating resistance.

These included cutting overuse, encouraging the development of diagnostic devices that could keep the drugs from being overused, and conserving antibiotics in a manner generally called ''stewardship''- which, by keeping critically needed drugs on the shelf, could cut into company profits.