Paediatric drug optimization for antibiotics

Paediatric drug optimization (PADO) exercises aim to identify key priority products and their preferred product characteristics for research and development. These have been successfully undertaken for HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis, demonstrating their potential and impact to accelerate access to optimal formulations in the context of fragmented, small markets for medicines for children.

To address the remaining research gaps that hinder availability of appropriate therapeutics for children with bacterial infections, WHO convened and facilitated a paediatric exercise for antibiotics to ensure that research and development efforts in this field target a priority list of medicines, ensuring that children with bacterial infections can also rapidly benefit from safe, effective and accessible treatment options