Antibiotic Resistance

KEY POINTS

Key Findings:

The pipeline and commercial market for novel antimicrobial drugs is insufficient to address current and future patient needs or mitigate the loss of effective treatments as antimicrobial resistance spreads. The U.S. Government implements a range of efforts to ensure sustainable availability of antimicrobial treatments, supporting research, product development, and appropriate use.

The evolution of pathogens to resist the drugs used to treat infections is an ongoing threat to public health, animal health, food production, and national security. Globally, a recent analysis estimated that 1.2 million deaths were caused by antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria in 2019, making this threat a leading cause of death for people of all ages worldwide.

Development of novel antimicrobials has slowed, and the preclinical and clinical pipeline is likely to be insufficient to support current and future patient needs.

The market for antimicrobial (AM) drugs is unique in that it is associated with a positive externality (public health) as well as a negative externality (antimicrobial resistance, or AMR) (Mossialos, et al., 2010). AMR occurs when microbes change over time and no longer respond to available medicine.

It is well known that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) creates a substantial and ongoing public health and economic burden and understanding the size and nature of this burden is important for the ability to respond to the threat of AMR. However, estimating or projecting that burden within the U.S.

In 2017, at least 2.8 million people in the U.S. acquired serious infections with bacteria that are resistant to one or more antimicrobial drugs and 35,000 have died as a result. Resistance to antimicrobials is viewed as a global threat with antimicrobial drug use in human and animal health driving resistance.

Pathogens that have evolved to be resistant to the drugs currently used to treat infections are an ongoing threat to public health, animal health, food production, and national security. Globally, a recent analysis estimated that 1.2 million deaths were caused by antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria in 2019, making this threat a leading cause of death for people of all ages worldwide.

Objectives: Clinical guidelines or guidance is an important tool for preventing and treating antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections. We sought to understand and support the effective use of guidelines and guidance for AMR infections.