Healthcare leaders have long warned of the impending crisis resulting from the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization’s Antimicrobial Resistance: Global Report on Surveillance, 2014, revealed that resistant organisms have already gained “the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country.”
Challenged by such dire assessments, public health authorities have begun to martial their resources to deal with the crisis. In July, UK Science Minister Greg Clark announced the creation of a “war cabinet” combining the efforts of the nation’s seven research councils to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance. And in September, President Obama issued an executive order creating a new Task Force for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, to be co-chaired by the secretaries of the US departments of defense, agriculture, and health and human services.
The new US task force will have no time to dawdle. By February 15, 2015, the group must submit a 5-year national action plan for implementing the US strategy for combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and within 180 days after that, it must submit its first annual progress report, including “plans for addressing any barriers preventing full implementation of the strategy and action plan, and recommendations for new or modified actions.”
And somehow, along the way, the secretary of HHS is also tasked with creating a new Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, a group that will provide advice, information, and recommendations regarding programs and policies for combating antibiotic resistance.
For clinical laboratorians, however, what may be most striking about the executive order is its repeated calls to support the development and use of new, rapid diagnostic technologies. The order assigns the task force to ensure that the national action plan includes “procedures for creating and integrating surveillance systems and laboratory networks to provide timely, high-quality data across healthcare and agricultural settings—including detailed genomic and other information—adequate to track resistant bacteria across diverse settings.”
In addition, as part of the national action plan, the task force is directed to describe steps that agencies can take to encourage the development of new and next-generation antibacterial drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, and novel therapeutics, including “options for attracting greater private investment in the development of new antibiotics and rapid point-of-care diagnostics.”
To incentivize investment, the task force should first identify and recommend elimination of the systemic barriers to the development and adoption of clinical diagnostics—including inadequate reimbursement coverage, impermanent R&D tax credits, and the medical device excise tax. Such steps would go a long way toward enticing the clinical lab community to partner with the government’s new initiatives.
Steve Halasey
Chief Editor, CLP
[email protected]
(626) 219-0199
