The Swiss INSEAD Healthcare Club (cHIC) was honored to welcome Bill Burns, former CEO of Roche Pharma, for a “fireside chat” about antibiotic resistance, moderated by Eva Jenisch, MBA ‘95J, in Basel on 23 March 2023.
The WHO considers antibiotic resistance to be one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. Each year, 1.27 million people die from antibiotic resistance-related infections. The emergence of resistant pathogens makes infections harder to treat and everyday medical procedures more dangerous. But despite the urgent need for new antimicrobials, the clinical pipeline is currently dry.
In the first part of the discussion, we took a closer look at how this situation came about. Causes include the improper prescription or administration of antibiotics by doctor, as well as their widespread use in livestock farming, which accounts for 80% of antibiotic consumption globally.
The economics of drug development contributes to the lack of new antibiotics in the clinical pipeline. In an environment where prices for “everyday” drugs are being increasingly squeezed, pharmaceutical companies are hesitant to invest in developing new antibiotics, a process that can take at least 10 to 15 years and cost up to USD 3 billion. In comparison, the American antibiotics market is worth about USD 600 million annually.
In the third part of the discussion, Bill told us about his latest role as Chair of the AMR Action Fund. Founded in 2022, AMR is the world’s largest public-private partnership investing in antimicrobials drug development. It is supported by more than 20 pharmaceutical companies. AMR is currently funding research on several new drugs being carried out mainly by smaller biotech or pharma companies. It was exciting to hear how the best ideas from around the world are being marshalled to bring new antibiotics to market.
The audience then had an opportunity to ask questions, which ranged broadly across many topics. The event was organized jointly with ECPM at the University of Basel and was followed by a standing dinner.
Speaker:
William M. Burns, former CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals
Event organizers:
Aleksandar Ruzicic, MBA’97J, Swiss Healthcare Club President
Eva Jenisch, MBA’95J, Swiss Healthcare Club leadership team member