Educate. Advocate. Act Now: Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance through Public-Private Partnerships

During the United Nations (UN) meeting on AMR in September, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, remarked: “In the century since Alexander Fleming stumbled across penicillin in a laboratory in London, antibiotics have become a mainstay of medicine, transforming once-deadly infections into treatable and curable conditions. Antimicrobial resistance threatens to unwind that progress, making it without question one of the most pressing health challenges of our time.”

Lygature at the forefront of AMR research

Lygature is actively involved in two projects aimed at combatting AMR: GNA NOW and UNITE4TB. Both projects are part of the IMI AMR Accelerator. 

GNA NOW

GNA NOW is a European collaboration involving 11 partners from industry and academia. Its mission is to develop new Gram-negative antibacterials with novel mechanisms of action and advance these compounds through Phase 1 clinical trials. 

Ahead of the UN meeting, the GNA NOW Consortium contributed to a call-to-action, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, highlighting the need for collaboration, risk sharing, and long-term investment in AMR research.

As one of the authors, Kristina Orrling, Global Health co-lead at Lygature and coordinator of the GNA NOW Consortium, emphasized: “Any acceleration that can be offered in terms of raising awareness of AMR and producing better drugs and treatments for patients will prove very important for saving lives. The field is still quite dispersed and we need to bring more people together. By establishing the right connections and collaborations, as we have done in GNA NOW, we can achieve better health outcomes faster, bringing health innovations to the most vulnerable on earth."

UNITE4TB

UNITE4TB, another key initiative, is an international public-private partnership comprising 30 partners from 13 countries. Its goal is to accelerate the development of new tuberculosis (TB) drugs and regimens through novel Phase 2 clinical trials. 

Following the launch of its clinical trial program last year, UNITE4TB recently celebrated the successful completion of participant recruitment for its DECISION trial – one of two trials currently being run within the project. The other clinical trial, PARADIGM4TB, now has 100 participants across eight sites in three countries in Africa, with plans to expand to Asia, Europe, and South America in 2025. 

Commenting on the TB/AMR challenge and the UNITE4TB partnership, Julia Lischke, Program Manager and leader of the Lygature UNITE4TB team said: "Multi-drug resistant TB stands as a major global health threat, particularly in efforts to control antimicrobial resistance. UNITE4TB offers a unique opportunity to advance the development of new TB treatments, setting a benchmark for innovative trial implementation. Lygature is proud to serve as the independent facilitator of UNITE4TB, advancing our mission to forge partnerships that make an impactful contribution to global health challenges."

Acknowledgement of support

The GNA NOW project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 853979: ‘GNA NOW: Gram-Negative Antibacterials NOW’. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and is part of the AMR Accelerator.

The UNITE4TB project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101007873. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA, Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung e. V. (DZIF), and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). EFPIA/AP contribute to 50% of funding, whereas the contribution of DZIF and the LMU University Hospital Munich has been granted by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

This communication reflects the author's view. Neither IMI nor the European Union, EFPIA, or any Associated Partners are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.