Oorlogstijd vraagt om toegankelijke antibiotica

Following the release of the 2026 Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Benchmark, Jayasree K. Iyer, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation spotlights key findings from the report – most concerningly, that the number of new antimicrobials in development by the largest pharmaceutical companies has decreased by more than a third since the 2021 iteration of the report.

She cites that every day, more than 3,000 people worldwide die from bacterial infections and thousands more die from infections that are treatable due to lack of access to appropriate antibiotics.

As Jayasree explains, developing new drugs is key to preventing AMR-related deaths, but research and development (R&D) is expensive and risky for companies in the space, causing large firms to invest elsewhere.

She also emphasises the access disparities between wealthy countries and low-resource regions of the world, citing that less than half of antibiotics developed between 1999 and 2014 are available in 10 countries. As a result, both new and existing drugs often still fail to reach those who need them most.

Highlighting bright spots from the report, she notes that two new oral antibiotics have been approved for urinary tract infections in women. Additionally, two new medicines for gonorrhea are now available, including the first oral treatment in decades.

While she notes that there is gradual progress – with companies increasingly including low- and middle-income countries in their strategies, as identified in the 2026 Benchmark – implementation varies and more effort is needed.