New Delhi, November 19, 2018 : .A report from a watchdog for the pharma industry found that pharma companies failed to supply essential medications to poor patients, increasing their risk of becoming resistant to drugs. Access to Medicines Foundation’s report also revealed that many pharmaceutical companies fail to control their manufacturing waste.This can lead to a higher risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In the 21st Century, antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to public health.Annually, 750,000 are killed by drug-resistant infections.
The watchdog also stated that 5.7 million people die each year from untreatable infections due to lack of access to medicine in their annual survey.
There is still an incredibly high rate of failure in getting antibiotics established to patients living in poorer settings where drug-resistant diseases are most prevalent.Jayasree Iyer (chief executive, Access to Medicine Foundation) stated that only a third of products under review had any strategy to improve access.
This could include price adjustments to lower the cost of medicines or licensing agreements to increase supply.
She said that doctors are forced to prescribe suboptimal treatment because they lack access to the right information, which gives pathogens more opportunities to become resistant and thus stokes resistance.
A 2018 Frontiers of Immunology study found that AMR can kill as many as 10 million people per year by 2050.
Combining more superbugs with inadequate treatment creates a deadly cocktail which could lead to spiralling drug resistance driven by natural selection.
The report stated that 50-70% of common Gram-negative strains have become multidrug-resistant, surpassing even those in’reserve antibiotic’ categories.
AMF Survey also shows that only 54 producers of the 166 antibacterial/antifungal medications and vaccines were able to devise a plan for providing them to the lowest and most need countries.
Only 5.2% of the third-party manufacturers that collaborate with top generic pharmaceutical firms are compliant with antibacterial waste disposal limits.
The report did identify improvements in drug resistance efforts, including a rising number of new experimental antibiotics.The report rates GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Aurobindo as leading pharmaceutical companies.Viatris is ranked among the generic providers.
According to the report, pharma companies were urged to act with greater urgency and learn from the lessons learned in the coronavirus pandemic. demic.
It is believed that the widespread use of antibiotics in the absence of proper diagnosis by patients with Covid-19 and global disruptions of antibacterial vaccine campaigns will have a significant impact on resistance rates.
The report stated that the pharmaceutical industry can play a key role in stopping this silent pandemic.
Iyer stated that the “unacceptable inequity” in accessing Covid-19 vaccines worldwide must be stopped when it comes time to protecting all communities from superbugs.
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