New York Times: Drug Giants Create Fund to Bolster Struggling Antibiotic Start-Ups
“Twenty of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies on Thursday announced the creation of a $1 billion fund to buoy financially strapped biotech start-ups that are developing new antibiotics to treat the mounting number of drug-resistant infections responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. The fund, created in partnership with the World Health Organization and financed by drug behemoths that include Roche, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, will offer a short-term but desperately needed lifeline for some of the three dozen small antibiotic companies, many of them based in the United States, that have been struggling to draw investment amid a collapsing antibiotics industry. … The new AMR Action Fund will make investments in roughly two dozen companies that have already identified a promising drug with the goal of bringing two to four novel antibiotics to the market within a decade, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, an industry trade group that is administering the fund…” (Jacobs, 7/9).

The Telegraph: Exclusive: Coronavirus could fuel a superbugs timebomb
“Coronavirus risks fueling the spread of superbugs due to the “excessive use” of antibiotics to treat sick patients, England’s former chief medical officer has warned. In her first major intervention during the virus pandemic, Dame Sally Davies urged hospitals to avoid over-using antibiotic drugs while attempting to prevent coronavirus patients from catching secondary infections…” (Gardner, 7/9).

Additional coverage of the AMR Action Fund is available from Bloomberg, Financial Times, and STAT.