The Amsterdam-based Access to Medicines Foundation today published the methodology it will use for its 2018 framework for evaluating how pharmaceutical companies are taking action to limit antimicrobial resistance, addressing the rising the global problem of overuse of antibiotics leading to resistance with few new ones in the pipeline.

The methodology will analyse company research and development, manufacturing and production, and appropriate access and stewardship.

“In the coming months, the Foundation will use this framework to map pharmaceutical companies’ antimicrobial R&D activities, their strategies for responsible manufacturing and production, and their antimicrobial stewardship and access plans,” the foundation said in a release. “Thirty companies are in scope, representing a cross-section of the pharmaceutical industry, including multinational research-based pharmaceutical companies, generic medicine manufacturers and clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies with antimicrobial pipelines. The results will be published in the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark Report in early 2018, funded by UK AID and the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.”

The release says analysis will cover:

“Research & Development

As AMR grows, existing medicines become obsolete. New and improved medicines and vaccines are critically needed, particularly new antibiotics that target resistant pathogens. The Benchmark will map companies’ antimicrobial R&D and highlight efforts to target pathogens whose distribution and drug resistance makes them a priority target for R&D.

Manufacturing & Production

Pharmaceutical manufacturing and production processes can contribute to antimicrobial resistance through two key routes: by releasing antibiotics into the environment in wastewaters; and by manufacturing antibiotics with insufficient levels of the active antibiotic ingredient. The Benchmark will compare company strategies for limiting these two routes to resistance.

Appropriate Access & Stewardship

The twin challenges of improving access to antimicrobials while also ensuring their appropriate use (i.e., stewardship) must be tackled in tandem. The Benchmark will assess companies’ antimicrobial access strategies for low- and middle-income countries alongside their global stewardship initiatives for antibiotics.

The Foundation is currently gathering data from public sources and directly from the companies in scope. This data will go through clarification and verification rounds, before being scored, compared and analyse across 15 indicators. The resulting research and findings will be published in the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark Report early in 2018.”

The full methodology report for the 2018 AMR Benchmark can be downloaded here.