Recommendation 7

The government deserves credit for introducing an antibiotic subscription model, and it now needs to evaluate its impact on the usage of antibiotics and pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to bring new antibiotics to the market. The UK was one of the first countries to develop a subscription model, under which pharmaceutical companies are paid a flat-rate subscription for recently-licensed antibiotics. The first round of contracts is expected to cost £1.9 billion over 16 years. This is intended to encourage investment in developing new antibiotics while also facilitating reductions in their use. However, the UK is only 3% of the global market for antibiotics and pharmaceutical companies will remain free to decide whether to invest more in research and development of new antibiotics. However, as part of Government funding of the subscription model, we would expect these companies to do so. recommendation The Government should encourage other countries to introduce an antibiotic subscription model, including by disseminating the results of its monitoring and evaluation of the UK model. The evaluation should include an assessment of the impact on pharmaceutical companies’ focus on developing new antibiotics.