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Momentum builds around new antibiotic business models

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 13, pages 711–713 (2014)Cite this article

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The Innovative Medicines Initiative's DRIVE-AB project joins the fray of task forces working to reinvigorate interest in antibiotics by developing reimbursement models that delink revenue from sales volume.

“It's the economics of antibiotics that now need to be addressed,” says David Shlaes, an anti-infectives consultant who has worked for Wyeth, Idenix Pharmaceuticals and Novexel. Although scientific and regulatory challenges persist, he says, key advances have been made on these fronts in recent years. But when it comes to economics, drug developers have yet to figure out how to contend with the availability of cheap generics and with the disincentive to use new agents to keep resistance to a minimum. “At the end of the day, there is no way around the fact that we will have to pay for new antibiotics. We need to get payers in the room, make them sit down and make them commit to what they will and won't do.”

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Figure 1: The number of systemic antibiotic approvals declined steadily from 1980 to 2009.
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  1. Asher Mullard
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Mullard, A. Momentum builds around new antibiotic business models. Nat Rev Drug Discov 13, 711–713 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4455

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