To solve antimicrobial resistance we need to incentivise pharmaceutical companies

Business must play a central role, as it did in fighting coronavirus. But pharmaceutical companies can’t do this on their own, writes Chris Blackhurst

(Getty/Independent)

Wanted urgently: a new industry model.

The prognosis could not be more stark. On Friday, The Lancet launched online the results of the largest ever piece of research into the impact of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, or AMR.

The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance, or GRAM, study finds that 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by AMR. In addition, up to 5 million died from illnesses in which AMR played a role. To put that in context, in the same year, Aids caused 860,000 deaths and malaria 640,000.