New antibiotics still a decade away unless policymakers, investors step up, AMR Action Fund CEO warns

A “broken” investment model means a new antibiotic may not reach the market for another decade, according to the head of a $1 billion Big Pharma-backed fund focused on the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

Urgent market reform is needed to encourage investment and expand the razor-thin pipeline of antibiotics in development, AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner, Ph.D., told Fierce Biotech in an interview. The fund was set up by a who’s who of leading biopharma companies with a mission of bringing up to four new antibiotics to patients by 2030, but even this ambitious goal is just “buying some time,” Skinner said.