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.