The time for lawmakers to reform America’s dysfunctional antibiotic market and get ready for the rising superbug epidemic, which scientists warn is already a silent pandemic and which government authorities claim poses a threat to national security, is rapidly running out.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, antibiotic-associated illnesses and drug resistance cause close to 50,000 deaths annually in the United States. The government claims that as a result of doctors over prescribing antibiotics and overcrowding hospitals, drug-resistant illnesses increased by at least 15% in 2020, worsening the issue during COVID-19.
Bipartisan legislators have proposed legislation to support the development of medications that can combat drug-resistant microorganisms as existing therapies for serious illnesses like sepsis and respiratory infections become ineffective.
A tight schedule, a contentious election season, disagreements over money, and inertia, however, threaten to stall progress before the end of the year.
If they miss this opportunity, the legislation will be pushed into the next Congress where it may lose steam, leaving the nation unprepared for a growing issue that already costs the American healthcare system billions of dollars annually.
If we don’t approve this reasonably soon, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind. ), one of the bill’s main backers, said, “We’re playing with fire.” “As time goes on, antibiotic resistance causes more deaths, and the problem becomes more difficult and expensive.”
The small number of pharmaceutical companies working on novel antibiotics to combat bacteria resistant to antibiotics have struggled to survive for years. The financial strain of marketing a product that, by definition, had to be used sparingly in order to maintain its power caused some firms that helped lifesaving treatments through the protracted, expensive development process to collapse once they were authorised.
Investors have been scared off by the run of failures, leaving a meagre supply of medications in development.
The PASTEUR Act, so named in honour of the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, would establish a “subscription” model for antimicrobial drugs that dissociates payments to pharmaceutical companies from how much medicine is sold. This would help the companies remain solvent and maintain the potent new drugs for infections that don’t respond to any other drugs.
According to the plan, after the FDA gives a drug approval, the corporation would submit an application to the Department of Health and Human Services for a contract that would pay the company millions, if not billions, of dollars over time. Patients with federal insurance would get the medication for free in return.
The bill’s chief sponsors in the House and Senate, including Young, are looking for ways to include it in a year-end legislative package that will likely include funding for the remainder of fiscal 2023. But even they doubt it will happen this year, pointing to the bill’s $11 billion price tag over ten years as a significant roadblock for lawmakers who have gone months without providing new funds for Covid-19. The cost of the plan is being reduced, according to a Senate staffer involved with conversations on it.
