ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE SOLUTIONS
WITH DR. JOHN H. REX
Latest Newsletters
Dear All, Integrating perspectives from EC HERA, EMA, Health Canada, Norway, UK MHRA, US FDA, and US NIH, the Transatlantic Task Force on AMR (TATFAR)'s Phage Working Group have just published a detailed summary of information on phage therapy with particular focus on its regulatory aspects. Here are the links you need: [key paper for this newsletter] Moon, K., Coxon, C., Årdal, C. et al. Considerations and perspectives on phage therapy from the transatlantic taskforce on antimicrobial resistance. Nat Commun 16, 10883 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64608-3 Useful deep(er) dive materials: 6 Aug 2019 newsletter: "Non-traditional antibiotics: A pipeline review and an analysis of key development challenges." Good discussion of the technical challenges with developing add-on products such as phage. 23 Oct 2024 newsletter: "NIAID RFA: Centers for Accelerating Phage Therapy (CAPT-CEP)." An important initiative that is discussed in Moon 2025. 6 Jun 2025 newsletter: "MHRA compilation of regulatory guidance on phage products." Just what the name says! EC HERA’s Horizon Europe, the framework program for clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of phage therapy for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections “https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-HLTH-2025-01-DISEASE-01” As background, TATFAR is a cross-governmental task force that was created in 2009 as part of the EU-US Summit Declaration with...
Dear All,Recently posted, six concepts were...
Latest Government Action
Dear All, I am pleased to learn that BARDA is holding a one-day innovation symposium on 20 Nov 2025. As you know, BARDA is a consistently creative funder of diverse medical countermeasures, including new antibiotics. For background, see these prior newsletters:22 Jul 2025 newsletter: "BARDA RFP: Antibiotic for HABP/VABP or Bloodstream Infection"5 Nov 2024 newsletter: "BARDA seeks deep insight on antibacterials near/beyond end-of-Phase 2"12 Nov 2023 newsletter: "Fireside Chat with BARDA’s Branch Chief for Antimicrobials".The video from this newsletter (see also below my signature) is highly recommended as a primer on that way that Team BARDA think about medical countermeasures!26 Sep 2023 newsletter: "BARDA Medical Countermeasures BAA: Substantial updates"BARDA's BAA-23-100-SOL-00004 is open through Sep 2028!As to the 1-day symposium, it runs 9a-5p ET on 20 Nov 2025 in Washington DC. Let me quote from the announcement (highlights added by me):"Join us in person for an engaging showcase of early-stage health security innovations supported by BARDA through our Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe), the BARDA Accelerator Network, BARDA Ventures, BLUE KNIGHT, and CARB-X. "The symposium will bring together BARDA-supported innovators, U.S. government partners, investors, strategic partners, and other key stakeholders to highlight technologies and foster collaborations to advance the development of medical...
Dear All,Referring back to the...
Dear All,Attention phage developers --...
Dear All,D-Day and the momentous Normandy...
Dear All,If you represent a...
Dear All, Sadly, I must...
Dear All (and with thanks...
R&D Insight
Dear All: Potpourri! Four things...
Dear All,I've written before about...
Update: There is a 14...
I am pleased to say...
Dear All (and with thanks to...
Dear All: New things continue...
Dear All,Attention phage developers --...
Dear All: Dated 19 Dec...
Can you help?
Dear All,I have just learned that Lifeline, the musical formerly known as The Mould that Changed the World, is seeking scientists, medics, and healthcare professionals to be part of the cast for a portion of a planned 5-week off-Broadway run of the show around the time of the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on AMR at UNGA 2024 in New York City...
Dear All, Heads up! Having...
Note: Be sure to take...
Update on 11 October 2023: The...
Dear All,Along with more than...
Dear All (and with thanks to...
Dear All, Two items for...
Dear All, Three things today......
Dear All, Greetings from ECCMID...
Dear All,A key theme of...
Dear All,Following hard on the...
Dear All, A short one...
Dear All, We are swimming...
Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics. And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.
AMR Fireside Chats
1/19 videos
1
Episode 18 w/Robin Hiley- Fireside Chat
19:48
2
Episode 17 w/ Ella Balasa and Rob Purdie of WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors - AMR Fireside Chat
38:24
3
Episode 16 w/ Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
32:59
4
Episode 15 w/ Mark Albrecht, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
43:55
5
Episode 14 w/ Lynn Silver - AMR Fireside Chat
56:23
6
Episode 13 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
30:01
7
Episode 12 w/ Tina Joshi, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
34:22
8
Episode 11 w/ Martin Heidecker - AMR Fireside Chat
32:31
9
Episode 10 w/ Anna Govett - AMR Fireside Chat
14:54
10
Episode 9 w/ Fatema Rafiqi, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
34:10
11
Episode 8 w/ Ghada Zoubiane, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
35:04
12
Episode 7 w/ Trevor Lithgow, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
35:41
13
AMR Snapshots: Episode 2 - John Rex (Editor-In-Chief, AMR.Solutions)
26:25
14
Episode 6 w/ Maryn McKenna - AMR Fireside Chat
45:50
15
Episode 5 w/ Christine Årdal - AMR Fireside Chat
43:44
16
Episode 4 w/ Peter Beyer - AMR Fireside Chat
39:21
17
Episode 3 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
11:45
18
Episode 2 w/ Henry Skinner, PhD - AMR Fireside Chat
15:44
19
Episode 1 w/ Kevin Outterson - AMR Fireside Chat
52:56
The 6 meanings of “Lack of Access” (UNSLAP)
Dear All, We often talk about the problem of lack of access to new antibiotics. In late 2021, for example, we explored data showing that multi-year ...
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FDA and EMA regulatory updates / Fireside chat during the 4th AMR Conference
Dear All (lots and lots of wonkish detail here, be sure your blood caffeine level is adequate!), During the 24-28 Aug 2020 BEAM Alliance-sponsored AMR Conference ...
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The hunt for oral antibiotics: Beyond Lipinski’s Rule of Five
Dear All: Given our collective interest in finding oral antibiotics, a recent article in J Med Chem on the evolution of our understanding of Lipinski’s ...
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Developing antibiotics for children: There are no easy answers
Aside: If you’ve enjoyed the prior discussions of movies to inspire antibiotic R&D and very apropos given the theme of today’s newsletter, please check out the ...
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Reimbursing for innovative antibiotics / Encouraging updates from the AMR conference
Dear All (with thanks to Kevin as the lead author on this note and also with a wonkish note alert … refresh your coffee and ...
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Draft EMA antibacterial guidance: Analysis
Dear All: I wrote previously that EMA posted an extensively updated and consolidated version of their previously separate Guideline (CPMP/EWP/558/95 Rev.2) and Addendum (EMA/CHMP/351889/2013) documents into a single draft ...
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IDSA White Paper on developing narrow-spectrum antimicrobials + editorial by G. Drusano
Dear All (long note alert … there’s a lot of material below my signature): Just published today is an IDSA White Paper entitled “Developing Antimicrobial ...
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Modeling the value of an effective antibiotic — Megiddo et al.
Dear All: I have previously written about the challenge of applying health technology assessment (HTA) to estimate the monetary value of an effective antibiotic: To my knowledge, ...
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FDA analysis of 40-years of antibacterial development: Dheman et al.
Dear All (and with thanks to Kevin Outterson for co-authoring this newsletter), Just out in CID is a paper in which FDA analyzes trends in ...
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Assessing antibiotic value: DTR, fire extinguishers, and a view from Australia
Dear All (wonkish note alert — refresh your coffee before proceeding — with thanks to Kevin Outterson for co-authoring this note!), The intertwined questions of ...
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Developing systemic & inhaled antibiotics for lung infections
Dear All: I missed it personally, but by all reports the session on 3 June 2017 at ASM Microbe entitled “Development of New Drugs and ...
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Scary, Scarier, Scariest (Part 2): What can YOU do about it?
Long note alert— apologies! Get a cup of coffee and settle in… Dear All: My 22 Apr 2019 note entitled Scary, Scarier, Scariest: Achaogen / FT ...
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The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism.
The bipartisan PASTEUR Act is the strongest bill ever written to strengthen antibiotic development and use. It will fix our market failures, expand the pipeline for next generation antibiotics, and save lives. We can’t sit on our hands as this public health crisis arrives – we have to act now.
Summaries
Notes: Newsflash ... BARDA have...
Aside: If you've enjoyed the...
See also This related newsletter:...
Dear All (and with thanks...
Dear All (Wonkish alert! Coffee-up!),Today...