24 May AIGHD launches new partnership to address one of biggest global health threats

A new public-private partnership is working to tackle one of the biggest global health threats.

AMR-Global is a recently launched public private partnership (PPP) that seeks to establish relationships with academia and organizations within and outside the Netherlands to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) around the world.

AMR is the ability of a microorganism, such as bacteria or viruses, to stop an antimicrobial (antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from killing it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, and the likelihood that infections could spread increases. It impacts all areas of health care in every corner of the world. Resistance to antibiotics, for example, means that major surgery procedures and cancer chemotherapy treatment could be compromised. AMR is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society, according to The World Health Organization.

Using a systems approach, AMR-Global seeks to conduct sustainable and collaborative research with input from various knowledge domains, disciplines, and industry sectors. The partnership focuses on critical factors such as local value, affordability, sustainability and health market- and health system uptake.

The partnership is led by AIGHD and was kicked off at a meeting with participants from a range of sectors including diagnostics, digital technologies and antibiotic development and production, to name a few. The vision is to create sustainable access to affordable and effective antimicrobial agents at all levels of health care.

“The first meeting was intended to begin discussions with partners involved thus far to determine how we can become an inclusive, interdisciplinary and fully operational partnership over the coming years,” said Prof. Constance Schultsz, AIGHD academic staff and senior researcher in the field of AMR.

“Our strategy is that we do this together and every partner has the opportunity to help shape our direction. We’re very much in development and look forward to working together with current and potential partners to leverage our expertise to make a positive impact on the AMR crisis.”

AMR-Global has been recognized as ‘coalition building’ PPP in the Dutch Knowledge and Innovation Agenda 2018 – 2021 and aligns with the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR, and the Sustainable Development Goals. AMR-Global is complementary to, and closely aligned with, the Netherlands Center for One Health (NOCH) and the Netherlands Antibiotic Development Platform.

A second workshop with partners is planned for June.