What Global Macro Trends Are You Paying Closest Attention To And Why?

ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE (AMR). Prior to COVID we were on a steep upward projection of global resistance to existing antibiotics. COVID exacerbated this crisis. Recent bankruptcies of public antibiotics companies fueled a current perception of antibiotics’ “market failure.” To address reluctance of investors to fund new antibiotic development, countries are reevaluating the way antibiotics are purchased, putting in place subscription agreements that divorce price paid from quantity used (U.K., EU, Sweden) or in the U.S., the PASTEUR Act (legislation that hopefully passes in FY2022) to set a market entry reward of $750M-$4B to be paid for a novel antibiotic addressing a clear unmet medical need. If these incentives are successful at increasing the “value” of antibiotics, we could financially support new drug development in small and large pharma and reverse the current upward trend of AMR deaths.

CAROL NACY, PH.D. is CEO of Sequella, Inc., a private company that develops new antiinfective drugs. She was formerly CSO at Anergen and EVP/CSO at EntreMed.