GARDP North America joins GARDP’s global network to create solutions to antibiotic resistance

A baby, just two days old, is diagnosed with a life-threatening bloodstream infection. A mother of two undergoing treatment for breast cancer gets pneumonia. An elderly man acquires a joint infection after undergoing a hip replacement.

 

These three scenarios could take place anywhere in the world. What they all have in common is the need for effective antibiotics—fast.

 

The discovery of antibiotics in the twentieth century has transformed modern medicine and human life as we know it. Yet their ongoing effectiveness is far from assured. In recent decades, certain bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatments for adults and children. Worldwide, nearly 1.3 million deaths were caused by antibiotic resistance in 2019. In the U.S. alone, antibiotic-resistant infections lead to over 35,000 deaths every year.

 

GARDP North America has recently been set up to fight antibiotic resistance so that no life is lost to an untreatable bacterial infection.

 

GARDP North America is the sister organization of the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) in Geneva, Switzerland. The organizations will work together on a common portfolio of projects that aim to accelerate the development and delivery of treatments for serious, and often life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant infections. These projects target bacteria that have been labelled “priority pathogens” in urgent need of new treatments by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the World Health Organization.

 

GARDP North America and GARDP share the same mission. These organizations will work together to slow the spread of antibiotic resistance and contain this growing public health emergency.

 

GARDP North America will champion new drug development and global access in educational discussions related to antibiotic resistance. The drug development pipeline for antibiotics is broken. Better policies are needed to incentivize the development of new antibiotic treatments and to make new and existing treatments available and affordable to people in low- and middle-income countries.

 

GARDP North America will strengthen ties with current and future partners and collaborators in the region. It will tap into the U.S.’s strong tradition of partnerships between the public, non-profit, and private sectors to realize global and public health objectives.