AMR Report: Test before you treat

Two years ago, the UK government tasked economist Lord Jim O’Neill with leading the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Now, O’Neill has presented the final report. It puts a 100 trillion US$ price tag on inaction, but also provides a comprehensive action plan to tackle AMR. 

“It is now clear to me, as it has been to scientific experts for a long time, that tackling AMR is absolutely essential,” says O’Neill in the foreword. “It needs to be seen as the economic and security threat that it is, and be at the forefront of the minds of heads of state, finance ministers, agriculture ministers, and of course health ministers, for years to come.” 

The report lists the economic costs of AMR as reaching US$100tr by 2050 if no action is taken now. In that case, 10 million people could be dying every year, the report states. It then goes on to detail how to tackle the problem. The most important issue is to reduce demand, and start doing that by launching a massive global public awareness campaign: “We need to improve global awareness of AMR across the board, so that patients and farmers do not demand, and clinicians and veterinarians do not prescribe, antibiotics when they are not needed.” New rapid diagnostics need to be developed to allow testing for infection before antibiotics are given, especially in rich countries. The report also calls for the establishment of a Global Innovation Fund for early-stage and non-commercial research and aims to incentivise not only R&D in antibiotics but especially market entry.

But, “none of this will succeed without building a global coalition for action on AMR,” the report concludes. It estimates the costs of the proposed action items to US$40bn over a decade. “The investment needed to take action is dwarfed by the human and financial cost of inaction which is mounting already.”

The report is bound to make waves. “The solid analysis underlying the Review, as well as the fact that Jim has never been regarded as a gloomy economist, make it even more credible that AMR really is a daunting challenge,” commented Mario Monti, President of Bocconi University and former Prime Minister of Italy. Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD , added: “We hope that this report will help drive international action at the G20 and other international bodies.”