Philanthropic partnership launches new initiative tackling Antimicrobial Resistance

“The AMR crisis continues to grow. We urgently need effective solutions to prevent a future of few to no treatments for drug-resistant infections,” said Alexander Pym, director of infectious disease at Wellcome. “Accelerating the discovery of new types of antibiotics and finding new ways to kill bacteria is key to tackling this global threat and protecting those in regions with the highest burden, such as Africa and Asia. Our best chance is to collaborate on innovative new approaches to antibiotic development.”

AMR is a serious global health threat that is directly responsible for an estimated 1.14 million deaths a year, contributes to an additional 4.71 million deaths annually, and results in significant economic costs. Despite this growing problem, the world faces an antibiotic pipeline marked by a shortage of new drugs and limited access to those that exist.

“Patients in Nigeria, where I live and work, and in other settings across Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean that have resistant infections, do not have access to effective treatments and are also not well placed to benefit from antimicrobial resistance innovations in the pipeline,” said Iruka N. Okeke, professor of pharmaceutical microbiology at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

“Moreover, Africa has the highest infectious disease burden, and resistant organisms spread rapidly across the continent, predominantly affecting the most vulnerable. This is why efforts like the Gr-ADI to innovate solutions to combat AMR caused by bacteria that disproportionately impact countries in Africa and other LMICs are so important.”

Bacterial AMR occurs when bacteria no longer respond to the antibiotics developed to combat them. This undermines the foundation of modern medicine by turning common infections and everyday procedures into potentially life-threatening situations.

“Bacterial AMR is such a significant global health issue that we must speed up innovation and try new ways of working together,” said Marianne Holm, vice president, of infectious diseases at the Novo Nordisk Foundation. “Through the Gr-ADI program, grant recipients will not only focus on their projects but will also become integral members of a consortium dedicated to data sharing, with a focus on specific Gram-negative bacteria. For many researchers involved in this program, it will be a new way of working, but we believe that it can make a big difference as we search for discoveries.”

Projects funded through the Gr-ADI will be selected by the partners through a request for proposals (RFP) that leverages the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges platform, an initiative that has fostered innovation to solve key global health and development problems for more than 20 years.

The focus of this RFP will be on the discovery of antibiotics with broad-spectrum activity against Enterobacteriaceae, the Gram-negative family of bacteria that includes Klebsiella spp., which is the pathogen that should be used in proposed projects.

Enterobacteriaceae are included on the World Health Organization’s list of critical priority pathogens and are among the leading contributors to global AMR-associated deaths, disproportionately impacting people living in low- and middle-income countries where the drivers of AMR are exacerbated by poverty and inequality.

“New drugs are critical to preventing needless deaths from the superbugs created by AMR,” said Trevor Mundel, president of global health at the Gates Foundation. “An unconventional model of drug discovery and development—driven by innovative approaches and cross-organization collaboration— could be the key to unlocking the pipeline of antibiotics that can be used to target drug-resistant pathogens. We’ve seen this work incredibly well in other areas, like tuberculosis (TB) drug development, and I have confidence that this is the right approach for combatting bacterial AMR.”

The call for proposals will close on March 25, 2025. Researchers, particularly from countries where AMR poses a serious threat, are encouraged to submit a proposal for the Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator.