‘Superbugs’ force antibiotic clean-up
Thirteen leading drugmakers like Pfizer
and GlaxoSmithKline on Tuesday have promised to curb the overuse of antibiotics
and clean up pollution from factories making antibiotics as part of a drive to
fight the rise of drug-resistant ‘superbugs.’
Independent experts are expected to help them
to set new factory standards and review supply chains to ensure there is no
residue waste that could breed superbugs.
This is part of the WHO campaign and this undertaking
by Indian companies coincides with a high-level meeting on antimicrobial
resistance as part of the UN General Assembly in New York.
According to the WHO, antimicrobial
resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an
ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and
fungi.
It has posed a danger to the treatment of
HIV.
Globally, 4,80,000 people develop multi-drug
resistant TB each year, and drug resistance is starting to complicate the fight
against HIV and malaria, it says.
The WHO also points out that the cost of
health care for patients with resistant infections is higher than care for
patients with non-resistant infections due to longer duration of illness,
additional tests and use of more expensive drugs.
Earlier this year Bloomberg reported that 85
companies including GlaxoSmithKline and Merck in the pharmaceutical,
diagnostic, biotech and generic sectors, along with nine industry associations
signed The Declaration on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance, announced at the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They were part of a large group of
health-care companies that “would
accelerate the development of drugs and diagnostics for “superbug” infections,
trying to come up with a viable commercial model as an increasing number of
bacteria become resistant to common antibiotics.”
The other companies among the 13 that have
signed up to the scheme include leaders in both branded and generic drug
production like Merck,
Novartis, Allergan and Indian drug makers Cipla and Wockhardt.
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