EFPIA Calls for Development of Antibiotics for Human Use Only

Pharma companies and publicly funded researchers should develop some new antibiotics for human use only to avoid their overuse in animals, where regulation is more lax, says Richard Bergström, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.

His suggestion is in response to the European Parliament’s revision of veterinary medicines legislation and supports plans to let the European Medicines Agency designate certain new antibiotics for human use only.

EFPIA is also calling for a global charter to insure that new antibiotics are administered in a controlled manner and at affordable prices. To this end, he recommends incentivizing drugmakers to sell to many nations and not just richer countries that will yield bigger profits via the use of advanced purchase commitments or a voucher system similar to that used by the FDA.