JPIAMR-VRI Digital Platform launched!

This unique free-access point aims to facilitate knowledge exchange and data sharing of antimicrobial resistance research data for the entire AMR community across the globe.

The JPIAMR-VRI (Virtual Research Institute) Digital Platform connects datasets through integration of various databases, such as the CARD, Resapath, NCBI Isolates browser ATLAS with more than 140 different public data sources already available in the DISQOVER platform provided by ONTOFORCE. This will help the user analyse, integrate and extract AMR data more efficiently to bring simplicity to complex datasets.

Please provide your feedback to secretariat.jpiamr@vr.se on the entire experience of using the platform and what other AMR relevant datasets would you like to be included in the platform.

Therapeutics workshop summaries

During this three day JPIAMR workshop insights and updates were shared regarding the state of the therapeutics pipeline in a context of related topics and perspectives. The event was attended by 400 people from 45 different countries.

The video recordings of the workshop are now available on the JPIAMR YouTube Channel. Please click on the links to watch the sessions from each day:

Below please find the summaries of the workshop sessions. A full workshop report will be published later.

Day 1, April 20

Session 1: Antimicrobial Therapeutics Landscape

  • The current antimicrobial pipeline is insufficient to tackle the challenges of AMR (WHO, Pew Trust). Still no novel classes addressing WHO priorities.
  • Funders are supporting a diversity of approaches: novelty vs improvements, traditional vs non-traditional (JPIAMR, CARB-X, IMI,). Important to fill gaps in the R&D value chain: new differentiation criteria (BEAM), clinical trial capacities & capabilities (Wellcome).
  • EU (Horizon Europe) taking a variety of AMR initiatives with a One Health approach (partnerships, SMEs, pull incentives)

Session 2:  Choosing wisely — is your product worth developing?

  • Public health needs (WHO priorities) and the future reimbursement landscape should drive our choices.
  • Need to consider new mechanisms to reveal the hidden value of antibiotics (“fire extinguishers”)
    • Added value vs “existing”: Payers need to see data on targeted populations (though phase 4 trials?)
    • Individual vs societal: “benefit to those around me“ is difficult to assess, but regulators (EMA) are open to finding a solution
  • What is desirable and what is achievable: “push” funders are taking a balanced portfolio approach (CARB-X, Novo) also trying to cover geographical gaps (GARDP) but pull incentives are absolutely needed to achieve sustainability

Session 2a: Activities to support the AMR therapeutics research community

  • Patient involvement in research helps to determine societal value of products – charities and patient groups can be an important resource for researchers
  • Research platforms support research collaboration and coordination – crossing geographic and sectoral boundaries
  • Coordinated efforts and information exchange are required to facilitate the transition of innovative products through the AMR therapeutics pipeline and reduce duplication of effort

Day 2, April 21

Session 3: Mtb antimicrobial pipeline

  • Exciting times for TB drug development with novel regimens and a vibrant pipeline
  • Partnership and collaboration are the keys to success: academic discovery and tools, SME agility and Pharma expertise all contribute to reducing duplication of effort
  • Early hit triage based on predicted in vivo relevance helps in reducing drug discovery risks, clinical failure and downstream development costs
  • Optimal drug dosing is critical to balance risk-benefit to improve treatment success; lesion specific PK rather than plasma
  • Novel strategies and outcomes
    • Phenotypic screens
    • Blocking efflux pumps
    • Adjunctive agents to boost efficacy
  • Repurposing of drugs can reduce time and costs of drug development: the example of Nitazoxanide

Session 4: Novel antimicrobial targets

  • Stimulation of the innate immune system as a non-traditional target to quench infection and reduce treatment failure
  • Chemical and antibody screens targeting biofilm formation and other anti-virulence approaches to avoid gene transfer and resistance
  • Novel HTS strategies that explore the non-coding RNA space by targeting TPP riboswitches
  • Novel antimicrobials specific against Helicobacter pylori – FLAV4AMR

Session 5: Non-traditional antimicrobials

  • Tolerance inhibitors sensitize Mtb to stress that is induced under infection, improve the function of Isoniazid, and re-sensitize infections to Isoniazid-resistant isolates
  • Understanding PKPD, in vivo relevance, innate immunity and resistance to develop antimicrobial peptides that can be delivered systemically
  • Antimicrobial peptides and bacteriocins: highly potent agents with potential for reduced antimicrobial resistance
  • Bacteriocins provide opportunities for directed delivery of antimicrobials to improve patient management and compliance

Day 3, April 22

Session 6: Novel strategies

  • Microbial metabolism is attractive novel target for drug development
  • Novel artificial siderophores as “Trojan Horses” – tools for the detection (bioluminescence) and treatment of gram-neg infections
  • Computational modelling approaches that capture biological context and complexity to identify novel targets for antibacterial therapies – drug target identification is key to a successful drug development process
  • Adjuvants inhibiting bacterial pump efflux to maximise the intrabacterial concentration of antibiotics
  • Combination of antibiotics and antibiotic/ adjunctive agents show in vitro activity and PK showing potential for treating resistant pathogens

Session 7: Economic incentives

  • Existing models of reimbursement don’t work for antimicrobial therapeutics
  • Current and future value to the health system needs to be assessed
  • Pilot payments/ reimbursement modes are being tested in the UK and Sweden:
    • Payments are delinked from the volume of use (sales)
    • Critical that more countries develop their own models in order to achieve global impact (eg: Pasteur Act in US Congress)
  • Open Science partnerships to speed-up drug discovery and translation
    • Regulatory data protection supports broad freedom-to-operate and provides private sector incentives

Session 8: Antimicrobial Stewardship, Access and Sustainability

  • Health systems can be rescued if we act collectively now
  • The global disparity in access to antimicrobials needs to be addressed
  • We need innovation, access and security across the whole value chain of antimicrobials
  • Stewardship and access are the cornerstones of medicine – aim to treat everyone everywhere
    • Lack of incentives for antimicrobial stewardship
  • Work needed to implement national action plans and implement IACG recommendations

Results Aquatic Pollutants call and Call on knowledge transfer

The three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance are pleased to announce the results from the AquaticPollutants Joint Transnational Call and the Call on knowledge transfer of research on Aquatic Pollutants.

Eighteen projects have been recommended for funding within the Aquatic Pollutants joint call on risks posed to human health and the environment by pollutants and pathogens present in the water resources. In total the projects have 103 applicants involved and will be awarded with 20M€ in requested funding.

Furthermore a Scientific Networking and Transfer Project has been recommended for funding within the Call on knowledge transfer of research on Aquatic Pollutants to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in the field of clean and healthy aquatic ecosystems, to fund research and development of methods for supporting knowledge transfer, scientific networking and public engagement as well as to support networking of the eighteen scientific projects of AquaticPollutants.

AquaticPollutants

After an initial 184 pre-proposals involving 1065 partners were submitted in the first step, the second step closed in November 2020 with a total number of 53 full-proposals submitted including 301 partners. In both steps the proposals were assessed for eligibility by the Call Steering Committee and evaluated by a panel of scientific experts. The projects are about to start in September 2021. The projects revolve around three themes:

  1. Measuring – Environmental behaviour of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in aquatic ecosystems
  2. Evaluating – Risk assessment and management of CECs, pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria from aquatic ecosystems (inland, coastal and marine) to human health and environment
  3. Taking Actions – Strategies to reduce CECs, pathogens and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in aquatic ecosystems (inland, coastal and marine)

The list of the selected projects is available here.

For more information about the Aquatic Pollutants Joint Transnational Call, see:

Call on knowledge transfer of research on Aquatic Pollutants

The project AquaticPollutantsTransNet has been recommended for funding by an independent scientific panel. The project is a consortium of four partners (two French, one German and one Swedish). The project should start in spring of 2021 for a duration of approximatively four years.

The Call on knowledge transfer of research on Aquatic Pollutants was launched in support of the three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) on Water, Oceans and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) to strengthen the European research area in the field of clean and healthy aquatic ecosystems by facilitating networking between researchers, knowledge hubs and the dissemination of scientific data into the public and administrative sectors. The call opened in February 2020 with a budget of 1M€ gathered by 3 funding agencies involved: Sweden (SRC), Germany (BMBF) and France (ANR) and dedicated to fund proposals issued from the existing call Aquatic Pollutants.

JPIAMR project database published

This new database presents information on projects and networks supported under the various calls coordinated by the JPIAMR.

The JPIAMR supported AMR research database allows users to explore data by investments in AMR research priority areas (as defined in the JPIAMR Strategic Research Innovation Agenda), countries of the researchers involved and details of the individual research projects and networks.

Explore the database.

Inclusion of antifungals in the JPIAMR SRIA

JPIAMR is proud to launch the new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which has been broadened to include antifungal research and innovation priorities.

JPIAMR has held a series of consultations with the antifungal research community to incorporate antifungal research priorities in to the JPIAMR SRIA. The SRIA is a prime guiding tool for AMR research prioritisation in investments, research activities and planning for JPIAMR member states and other funding initiatives. It is also one of the most thorough guidelines on AMR research, helping researchers, policymakers, media, educators, health workers and the scientific community to work together on solutions to curb AMR on a global scale.

Read more and download the new SRIA.

The JPIAMR will be holding a webinar in alignment with the launch of the broadened JPIAMR SRIA: Supporting Transnational Research Collaboration on Fungal Drug Resistance. The webinar will be held on 28 April 2021, 14.00-16.45 CET, and is organised in collaboration with the Israel Ministry of Health.

Read more and register to the webinar.

Articles about the AMR and COVID-19 webinar series

The JPIAMR has led and facilitated a series of webinars on ’AMR in a post-pandemic world’. Two articles have recently been published summarising the outcomes of the webinars and discussing the potential impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance and providing key recommendations.

In 2020, JPIAMR held a series of webinars engaging clinical, research and policy experts to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on antimicrobial resistance. The outcomes of the webinars have been published in two journal articles. The first article, published in the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance provides a statement on the impact COVID-19 has had on AMR stewardship, surveillance, research and data sharing. The second article, published in the Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene reviews antibiotic use and factors affecting the spread of AMR in the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the paper provides key recommendations targeted towards clinical, research and policy stakeholders for antimicrobial resistance in the pandemic and post-pandemic times.  

JPIAMR would like to thank the participants in the webinars and the authors of the papers for their engagement and efforts for the outcomes.

New website for JPIAMR

Welcome to our new website!

The new JPIAMR website has been launched! It has a new design and new structure with the aim to improve user accessibility.

The site’s content is now partly re-structured and we have created clear entries on the start page to the most sought after content. All research calls have their own pages with links to the projects and networks awarded funding within each call. The Projcets section contains a possibility to filter projects by call or by JPIAMR Priority topic. Upcoming JPIAMR events such as workshops and webinars are now clearly visible on the start page, and below this you will find entries to some of our recources such as our AMR KNowledge Hub and our media library.

We hope that you will enjoy our new website. If you are having trouble finding something or wish to give us feedback, please contact us at secretariat.jpiamr@vr.se.

Live webinar on managing COVID-19 and AMR

JPIAMR will hold the final webinar in the AMR research in a post-pandemic world series on September 18.

JPIAMR will hold the final webinar in the AMR research in a post-pandemic world series.

How do we simultaneously manage the acute COVID-19 pandemic and escalating antibiotic resistance

September 18, 14.00-15.00 CEST

Key topics:

-How do we leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to address AMR in different settings?

-What do the clinical and scientific communities need to do to continue to raise awareness of the AMR topic?

Our distinguished panel discusses how to manage and meet the challenges of an ongoing pandemic intertwined with increasing antibiotic resistance.

The webinar will be moderated by Constance Schultsz (University of Amsterdam) and panellists include Charu Kaushic (GloPID-R), Steven Hoffman (Global Strategy Lab), Margo Warren (Access to Medicine Foundation), Ghada Zoubiane (ICARS), Sabiha Essack (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Otto Cars (ReAct) and Ramanan Laxminarayan (CDDEP )

Further details of the webinar and registration can be found at the webinar webpage: How do we simultaneously manage the acute COVID-19 pandemic and escalating antibiotic resistance?

Webinar output: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic

Key takeaways and a video recording of the second live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world are now available.

The second live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world, Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemicwas held on the 25th of June. 

The webinar panel was moderated by Till Bachmann (UK), with the panellists Herman Goossens (BE), Rafael Canton (ES), Adam Roberts (UK), Birgitta Henriques Normark (SE), Neil Clancy (US), George Haringhuizen (NL) and Benedikt Huttner (WHO).

The key takeaways from the webinar are:

  • Disruption of research and surveillance of AMR in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • There are many knowledge gaps in the current pandemic scenario, such as:
    • Data on bacterial and fungal co-infections and superinfections, including AMR patterns
    • Understanding of the impact of clinical antibiotic use on community and environmental spread of AMR
    • Understanding of the cause of death from autopsy studies: to recognise whether patients die ‘of’ or ‘with’ bacterial infections
  • Community use of antibiotics have decreased dramatically during the pandemic
  • Rapid diagnostics needed before onset of influenza season
  • Urgent need of prioritised sample collection through biobanks

A video recording of the full webinar is now available:

Webinar video: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic

Other seminars in this series: Antibiotic Use: Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic? 

More information on the webinar series AMR research in a post pandemic world

Webinar output: Antibiotic use in the COVID-19 pandemic

Key takeaways and a video recording of the first live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world are now available.

The first live webinar in the JPIAMR webinar series on AMR in a post-pandemic world, Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic?, was held on the 25th of June. 

The webinar panel was moderated by Jesús Rodriguez Baño (ES), with panellists Gian Maria Rossolini (IT), Constance Schultsz (NL), Evelina Tacconelli (IT), Srinivas Murthy (CA), Norio Ohmagari (JP) and Alison Holmes (UK).

A conclusion made from the dicussion is that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the Achilles heel of the fight against antimicrobial resistance since as soon as there is clinical uncertainty antimicrobial usage increasesOther key takeaways from the webinar are:

  • Antibiotics were excessively used early in the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Redundancy for diagnostics need to be implemented to maintain the capacity to diagnose bacterial and fungal pathogens, even under emergency situations
  • Antimicrobial stewardship procedures must remain in place in the COVID-19 pandemic, or any future pandemic
  • Collection and analysis of global data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR is needed, including data from low and middle income-countries (LMIC)
  • Clinical and scientific teamwork has been strong during the COVID-19 pandemic

A video recording of the full webinar is now available:

Webinar video: Have antibiotics been appropriately used in the COVID-19 pandemic?

Other seminars in this series: AMR Research: Facilitating AMR research in the COVID-19 pandemic

More information on the webinar series: AMR research in a post pandemic world