Governments fall behind in race to stem antimicrobial resistance

Five years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted a landmark declaration urging global action against growing anti­microbial resistance (AMR) — which many still view as one of the greatest threats to public health in the 21st century. The move followed a groundbreaking review of antibiotic resistance commissioned by the UK government from the economist Jim O’Neill, the findings of which continue to be widely cited. Without decisive action, there could be 10m deaths a year due to AMR by 2050 — and a cumulative cost to the global economy of $100tn. Yet 2016 was a high watermark for political and public engagement with AMR. While the subsequent five years have seen some new funding for antibiotics research and development — as well as initiatives to slow the evolution of AMR by restraining excessive use of existing drugs in medicine and agriculture — progress has not been made at the scale needed.