Pharma companies press on in fight against drug resistance, yet lag in access to antibiotics.
The 2021 AMR Benchmark evaluates 17 companies with a major stake in the anti-infectives space, including large research-based companies and generic medicine manufacturers. By comparing how they perform across a set of 20 metrics, the Benchmark tracks the progress and gaps in their efforts to keep medicines and vaccines available, despite the rise of drug resistance.
Large R&D-based companies
Generic medicine manufacturers
Insights
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Improvement in antimicrobial sales practices, especially from generics companies
When sales agents’ bonuses are linked to how much antibacterial and antifungal medicine is sold, this acts as an incentive for these staff to oversell in order to increase their own pay. In 2021, more generic medicine manufacturers are taking action to combat overselling.
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Tech transfers are being carried out as isolated, yet valuable, initiatives
To support the development of local manufacturing in low and middle income countries, pharma companies can invest in capacity building and technology transfers. Half of the on-patent vaccines analysed are subject to a technology transfer initiative. Very few initiatives cover any of the 148 medicines analysed.
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Most companies support efforts to track resistance
To control the spread of resistance, it is important to track cases and infection rates. Most companies are engaged in surveillance to some extent: all of the eight large research-based companies evaluated, except Otsuka, and three generic medicine manufacturers, Abbott, Cipla and Viatris.
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Slow progress on expanding product registrations to low- and middle-income countries
Less wealthy nations often have the highest need for new medicines arriving on the market. Yet only six of the sampled on-patent medicines have been filed in ten or more of the 102 low- and middle-income countries prioritised for this analysis.
Trends
Good practice is becoming more common. Action to address access lags behind.
Good practice is becoming more common in the actions taken by pharmaceutical companies to limit the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This is most notable in the plans to ensure wider access to and responsible use of future products, as well as in the steps taken to curb the release of antibiotic waste into the environment. In stewardship, generic medicine manufacturers are taking a more active role. However, all companies miss opportunities to improve access in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the need is greatest and where people face the greatest threat from superbug infections.
Large R&D-based companies
Pfizer makes significant strides to become joint leader alongside GSK
GSK and Pfizer are joint leaders of the large research-based companies in 2021. They are followed by Johnson & Johnson. Although all three leaders perform well across the board, Pfizer made significant improvements in the scale and scope of its efforts to address AMR, and signalled a clear boost to its infectious diseases R&D.
The right figure shows how many points each company achieved, broken down by area of activity.
Points are available to companies in each metric that is relevant for its business.
Generic medicine manufacturers
Three new leaders in 2021, as stewardship and access measures increase
Aurobindo, Abbott and Viatris take the lead among the generic medicine manufacturers in 2021. Each of these companies is filing its medicines for registration in low- and middle- income countries, and has improved its sales practices to mitigate the risk of overselling. Abbott, Cipla and Viatris are the first generic medicine manufacturers to report environmental risk-management strategies that apply to their suppliers’ sites, as well as their own sites. They also report that they check whether suppliers’ sites comply with limits set for environmental standards. Transparency by generic medicine manufacturers has once again increased, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The right figure shows how many points each company achieved, broken down by area of activity.
Points are available to companies in each metric that is relevant for its business.
The Methodology
Methodology
The goal of the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark is to guide and incentivise pharmaceutical companies to do more to tackle drug-resistance. It identifies good ideas for limiting AMR and highlights where action is still required. To fairly compare the diverse companies, the Benchmark evaluated them only in those metrics that are relevant to their portfolio and pipelines, comparing them in three groups: large research-based pharmaceutical companies, generic medicine manufacturers and pharmaceutical SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises). Read more about the analytical framework here.
