(Updated on 8 July 2020)
Dear All,
Mark your calendars now for a major global AMR initiative that will be announced by live virtual events (webinars) from Washington and Berlin on 9 July and from Tokyo on 10 July. You’ll have to wait for the day to get the full details, but the initiative will definitely put new energy into the AMR ecosystem and the launch event is not to be missed.
Organized by IFPMA, EFPIA, PhRMA, BIO, and VfA, the global webinars will feature an unprecedented and ground-breaking collaborative global effort discussed by a star-studded cast (see lists below my signature). Here’s the webpage for the event as a whole (link). You’ll want to look for the event in your part of the globe:
- Washington: 9.00-10.30 AM EDT (link)
- Here is the link to the Zoom webinar: https://zoom.us/j/96695418747
- Berlin: 3.15-5 PM CEST (link)
- Tokyo: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM JST (on 10 July!) at the Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo (link)
Please register and attend! All best wishes, –jr
John H. Rex, MD | Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd. | Operating Partner, Advent Life Sciences. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRex_NewAbx. See past newsletters and subscribe for the future: https://amr.solutions/blog/. All opinions are my own.
WASHINGTON Agenda:
Introduction and welcome remarks
- David Ricks, Chairman and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company
FIRESIDE CHAT – Patient experience with AMR
- Michelle McMurry-Heath, President and CEO, BIO – moderator
- Brandon Noble, former NFL player
CEO ROUNDTABLE – Collaborating to beat the public health challenge (followed by Q&A)
- Steve Ubl, President and CEO, PhRMA – moderator
- Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer
- Ken Frazier, Chairman and CEO, Merck
- David Ricks, Chairman and CEO, Eli Lilly and Company
KEYNOTE REMARKS – The world urgently needs new antibiotics: Politics, leadership, and public health
- ADM Brett P. Giroir, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health
- Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA)
- Senator Bob Casey (D-PA)
PANEL – The AMR ecosystem challenges, opportunities and policies necessary for change (followed by Q&A)
- Scott Gottlieb, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute – moderator
- Helen Boucher, MD, board member and treasurer, Infectious Disease Society of America
- Michael Boyle, MD, president and CEO, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
- Kevin Outterson, executive director and principal investigator, CARB-X
- Kathy Talkington, director, Health Programs, The Pew Charitable Trusts
- Ramani Varanasi, founder/president/CEO, X-Biotix
Closing remarks
- Ken Frazier, Chairman and CEO, Merck
BERLIN Agenda:
Introducing the new initiative – Bridging the gap between science and patients
– The problem, complication, and solution: Thomas Cueni, Director General, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA)
– The pharmaceutical industry investors:
- Hubertus von Baumbach, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, Boehringer Ingelheim
- Messages from: Emma Walmsley CEO GSK, Deborah Dunsire, President & CEO Lundbeck, Vas Narasimhan, CEO Novartis, Severin Schwan CEO Roche Group
The AMR public health challenge: Dame Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Public health response to the initiative
- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization
- Werner Hoyer, President, European Investment Bank
- Jeremy Farrar, Director, Wellcome Trust
PANEL: The inventor, investment and partnerships to bridge the gap
- Tiemo Wölken, MEP S&D German, vice-chair of European Parliament MEP Interest Group on AMR
- Florence Séjourné, CEO, Da Volterra and President BEAM Alliance
- Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson & member of the IMI Governing Board
- Kasim Kutay, CEO, Novo Holdings
- Stefan Oelrich, CEO Bayer Pharmaceuticals
PANEL: The world urgently needs new antibiotics – politics, leadership and public health
Health Ministers and the need for antibiotics innovation to tackle AMR
- Jens Spahn, Federal Minister of Health, Germany
- Magnus Heunicke, Minister of Health and Senior Citizens, Denmark
Joined by
- Agnès Pannier-Runacher Secretary of State for Economy and Finance, France
- Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety
- Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck
- Nathalie Moll, Director General, EFPIA
TOKYO Agenda:
Opening remarks (video messages)
- International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) – Director General, Thomas Cueni (video message)
- World Health Organization (WHO) – Regional Director for the Western Pacific, Dr Takesi Kasai
Keynote speeches
- AMR threats and the need for counter measures – Trinity College, Professor Dame Sally Davies (video message)
- COVID-19 and AMR in Japan – NCGM,Head of AMR Reference Center, Norio Ohmagari
About the new pharma initiative
- Summary – IFPMA Vice-President Isao Teshirogi
- Messages from Pharma Industry:
- Eisai, Representative Corporate Officer, COO and Industry Affairs, Yasushi Okada
- Daiichi Sankyo, President & CEO, Sunao Manabe
- Takeda, Chief Global Cooperate Affairs Officer, Takako Ohyabu
- Chugai, Senior Vice President, Keiji Kono
From the experiences of COVID-19 pandemic to AMR
- Infectious diseases measure in Japan – MHLW Chief Medical Officer, Yasuhiro Suzuki
- Essential efforts to create new antibiotic drugs and vaccines – JPMA President, George Nakayama
Media Q&A
Current funding opportunities:
- Novo REPAIR Impact Fund is open for global applications through 31 Jul 2020. Go here for current details.
- 2020 funding rounds for CARB-X have not been announced.
- The Global AMR R&D Hub’s dynamic dashboard (link) summarizes funders and projects by geography, stage, and more.
Upcoming meetings of interest to the AMR community:
- 30 Jun 2020 (online, 17:00-18:30 CEST): GARDP REVIVE webinar. Title: “Clinical development of antimicrobials – Phase 1 development challenges.” Speaker: Markus Zeitlinger. Go here to register.
- 9 Jul 2020 (online, 09:00-10:30 CEST): GARDP REVIVE webinar. Title: “The challenges and opportunities for antimicrobial R&D in low- and middle-income countries – India case study.” Speaker: Anand Anandkumar and Kamini Walla. Go here to register.
- 17 Jul-2 Aug 2020 (Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA): Residential course entitled “Molecular Mycology: Current Approaches to Fungal Pathogenesis.” This 2-week intensive training program has run annually for many years and gets outstanding reviews. Go here for details.
- 27 Jul-31 Jul 2020 (online): Small World Initiative Instructor Training Workshop – training for undergraduate professors and high school teachers in wet lab techniques, parallel curricula, & pedagogical instruction to engage students in the hunt to find new antibiotics in soil (also covering distancing learning options). Go here to register.
- 4 Aug 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Development Considerations of Antifungal Drugs to Address Unmet Medical Need.” Go here to register.
- 5 Aug 2020 (Silver Spring): FDA workshop entitled “Developing Antifungal Drugs for the Treatment of Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) Infection.” Go here to register.
- September 2020. University of Sheffield (UK). Applications are being taken for a new 1-year (full-time) or 2-year (part-time) Masters of Science course in Antimicrobial Resistance. The program runs annually from September and covers microbiology, clinical practice and policy. The course webpage is here.
- 9-10 Sep 2020 (Washington, DC): US PACCARB public meeting. Go here for details.
- 26-29 Oct 2020 (online meeting), Annual ESPID meeting (European Society for Pediatric ID, #38)
- 10-13 Apr 2021 (Vienna): Annual ECCMID meeting (#31)
- 20-24 June 2021 (Toronto): International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-12). Go here for details.
- 3-7 Jun 2021 (Anaheim), ASM Microbe 2021. Go here for details.
- 8-11 Oct 2021 (Aberdeen, Scotland): 10th Trends in Medical Mycology. Go here for details.
- 16-24 Oct 2021 (Annecy, France): Interdisciplinary Course on Antibiotics and Resistance (ICARe). This is a soup-to-nuts residential course on antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and antibiotic R&D. The course is very intense, very detailed, and gets rave reviews. Registration is here and is limited to 40 students.
- 18-21 May 2021 (Albuquerque, New Mexico): Biannual meeting of the MSGERC (Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium). Save-the-date announcement is here, details to follow.