This is how to fight antibiotic-resistant superbugs with a simple subscription payment model

This is how to fight antibiotic-resistant superbugs with a simple subscription payment model

AMR – or the emergence of “superbugs” resistant to antibiotics – is one of the leading threats to human health worldwide.

We need to change the way we pay for antibiotics if we want to secure the introduction of novel treatments to save people.

A subscription model based on fixed annual payments in return for a sufficient antimicrobial product supply guarantee, de-linked from the volumes sold would offer manufacturers security and financial predictability.



A few weeks ago, the Lancet published an analysis which concluded that global mortality associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been greatly underestimated, and that with 3,500 daily deaths being directly related to AMR, it is one of the leading threats to human health worldwide. The analysis covers more than 200 countries and is the most comprehensive study on the consequences of antimicrobial resistance to date.

Tragically, people are dying from infections that previously were treatable. Children under the age of five are at particular risk in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – with more than a quarter of a million dying each year, or one child every two minutes.

Decades of antibiotic overuse and misuse, in people and in animals, has caused the emergence of “superbugs”,