More than 80 international drug and biotech firms have urged governments to commit more funding for research to combat drug-resistant infections.

85 companies from 18 countries called for a more coordinated effort from governments to cut unnecessary use of antibiotics and support development of new ones in a declaration signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 21 January. 

The Declaration by the Diagnostics, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance, whose signatories include Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and bioMérieux SA, said that this should include changing drug prices as well as investing more in research.

The signatories say that the value assigned to antibiotics and diagnostics often “does not reflect the benefits they bring to society, nor the investment required for their creation”.

“We call on governments to commit to allocating the funds needed to create a sustainable and predictable market for these technologies while also implementing the measures needed to safeguard the effectiveness of antibiotics.”

According to the declaration “traditional R&D approaches have largely failed”, as no new class of antibiotic for Gram-negative infections—which include Escherichia coli and Salmonella—has been approved in more than 40 years.

The companies said they were committed to doing their part and were “actively engaged in combating antimicrobial resistance as appropriate to their business”, but added that leadership from elsewhere was required.

The industry welcomed Jim O’Neill’s review into antimicrobial resistance, published last February, which recommended that governments should set up advance lump-sum payments for antimicrobials alongside restrictions on the drugs’ use.

The companies committed themselves to:

1. Work to reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance

2. Invest in R&D to meet public health needs with new innovative diagnostics & treatments

3. Improve access to high-quality antibiotics and ensuring that new ones are available to all

Also the Department of Health has announced that it has agreed a deal with the pharmaceutical industry that will see companies pay around £550 million in 2016 as part of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme to help fund medicines for NHS patients.