A Grand Bargain for Antimicrobial Procurement: Leveraging Purchasing Systems to Address AMR

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest global public health threats facing humanity. Over 1 and a quarter million people die every year from a drug-resistant infection as a direct result of antimicrobial resistance. That’s more deaths than are caused by HIV/AIDS or malaria. This burden falls heaviest on the world’s poor, with a child under age five in Africa 58 times more likely to die from AMR than a child of the same age in a high-income country (HIC).

Overcoming AMR requires re-envisioning the way antimicrobials are procured in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Current systems fail to ensure adequate access to antimicrobials, stewardship of the drugs, and innovation to replace drugs rendered ineffective by the spread of resistance. Addressing these shortcomings requires a careful balance between these three interdependent components.

Join the Center for Global Development for a conversation on new purchasing systems for antimicrobials and the grand bargain stakeholders must strike to govern the global market. This discussion will draw from a new landscape review of antibiotic procurement systems, which synthesized existing research and thinking on how antimicrobials are procured and ways to improve the current purchasing system. This research was undertaken as part of CGD’s working group, A Grand Bargain for Antimicrobial Procurement. Speakers will discuss strategies for improving access, stewardship, and innovation for antimicrobials; promising new procurement models; and the rights and responsibilities of stakeholders in both LMICs and HICs to facilitate a healthy pipeline of antimicrobials that defends against AMR.