Fleming Initiative featured in National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance

Credit: DFID/ Will Crowne

The Fleming Initiative is named as key to achieving the Government’s ambitions for tackling antimicrobial resistance over the next 5 years.

The Department of Health and Social Care yesterday laid out the UK government's ambitions for tackling the spread of drug-resistant infections, with the Fleming Initiative set to be a key component.

The National Action Plan supports their vision for controlling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This includes preventing and controlling drug-resistant infections, and protecting the current antimicrobial medicines we have.

It highlights that the Fleming Initiative, founded on a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, “will make a major contribution to containing, controlling, and mitigating AMR, by co-locating diverse expertise and centralising the role of civil society in addressing the crisis.”

I’m delighted that the Fleming Initiative is recognised as an important part of the UK’s National Action Plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The Fleming Initiative has the potential to boost efforts within the UK and to strengthen the UK’s global leadership of this issue. Professor the Lord Ara Darzi Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative and Co-Chair of the Institute of Global Health Innovation

The Fleming Centre will open at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, at the same site where Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.

The Centre will provide the facilities for world-class clinical and behavioural research to develop, incubate, and test innovations against AMR, as well as a unique space to engage and involve the public in the past, present, and future of AMR research, enabling the development of solutions with buy-in from all.

The Fleming Centre will commit to being evidence-led in deciding which solutions to antimicrobial resistance it advocates for, bringing policy work together with key stakeholders, and linking to other centres around the world to ensure the mission to tackle antimicrobial resistance is a global one. This fits with Objective 9 of the National Action Plan, which envisions the UK being a global leader on this agenda.

Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative and Co-Chair of the Institute of Global Health Innovation said: “Drug-resistant infections are a very real threat to global health. It’s imperative we tackle the issue head on and ensure the antimicrobials we rely on to fight infections continue to work. I’m delighted that the Fleming Initiative is recognised as an important part of the UK’s National Action Plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The Fleming Initiative has the potential to boost efforts within the UK and to strengthen the UK’s global leadership of this issue.”

The importance of tackling AMR

Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat that already kills over one million people around the world each year.

It has been caused in part by the widespread misuse and overuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials, in humans and livestock, which has led to the global spread of drug-resistant microbes. 

If the problem is not resolved, it is estimated that by 2050, drug-resistant microbes will lead to around ten million deaths per year.

The Fleming Initiative will uniquely co-locate experts across research, behavioural science and policy to tackle antimicrobial resistance from all angles and on a united front. 

In support of the Fleming Initiative’s mission, the UK Government has committed £5 million in seed funding to the Fleming Centre, as part of a suite of funding aimed at bolstering the UK’s life sciences sector.

His Royal Highness Prince William, The Prince of Wales, has been announced as Patron of the appeal to build the Fleming Centre. As Patron, Prince William will support efforts over the next five years to make the Fleming Initiative’s ambitious plans to overcome global antimicrobial resistance a reality.

The announcement of Prince William’s patronage acted as a springboard for the initiative, significantly amplifying the reach of the Fleming Initiative’s message.

The Fleming Initiative: Keeping antibiotics working for the next 100 years.

Founded on a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the Fleming Initiative will uniquely co-locate experts across research, behavioural science, and policy to tackle antimicrobial resistance from all angles and on a united front.