Date
24 March 2020
COVID-19 Pandemic rattles already vulnerable antibiotics market
Jessica Davis Plüss of SWI swissinfo.ch looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the antibiotics market. The Access to Medicine Foundation's Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark is cited for its insights into R&D in the field, and Executive Director Jayasree K. Iyer is quoted in the article.
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This article looks into the long-standing issue of bacterial resistance to antibiotics as a result of antibiotic overuse and misuse, and the need for new medications as a response. This article delves into additional barriers that might affect the research, development, and access to new medications due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The article cites the Access to Medicine Foundation's 2020 Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark findings that antibiotic R&D is becoming progressively more concentrated within a small number of companies. Jayasree Iyer is quoted as saying that “we are relying on very few companies to hold the world supply of antibiotics in check.”