Drugs industry should be taken over to create new antibiotics says top advisor

Lord Jim O’Neill, advisor to the government on antibiotic resistance, has revealed his shock at the failure by pharmaceutical companies in tackling drug-resistant infections, and said the solution may be to “just take it away from them and take it over.”

Lord O’Neill proposed solutions three years ago in his Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, including allowing around a billion dollars to pharmaceutical companies for each new antibiotic they developed.

However, he reported that since then there had been empty words from international policy makers and that he was now considering the idea of nationalising part of the pharmaceutical industry.

He said “If you had asked me three years ago, I would have thought that would have been a bit crazy.

“But nearly three years after our review came out, there’s endless talk, but there’s no progress in waking up the pharmaceutical industry to want to do this.

So, by default, I find my mind thinking why not explore the idea of some public utility that’s got public-purpose ownership of it, just take it away from them and take it over.”

In response, Dr Sheuli Porkess of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said “We have been working closely with the government for the last two years and companies are ready and waiting to start testing a new model which will support antibiotics research and development this year.

“We shouldn’t write off this plan before we’ve tried it.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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