A pioneering scheme to provide new antibiotics to NHS patients by offering to pay pharmaceutical companies upfront for their work has now commenced.
The NHS is offering two contracts to pay pharmaceutical companies at the start of their work for access to innovative antibiotics, incentivising them to bring new classes of the drugs to patients across the UK for the first time in almost 30 years.
Of particular interest are antibiotics that can provide alternative treatment options for serious infections, such as bloodstream infections, sepsis, and hospital-acquired pneumonia.
The payment model, which was launched in July 2019, pays pharmaceutical companies upfront for access to their antibiotic product based on a product’s value to the NHS, rather than how much is used.
This aims to incentivise companies to invest in researching and developing new antibiotics, helping secure much-needed alternative treatment options for NHS patients.
Two drugs that have proven to be both safe and effective will be selected to undergo health technology assessment (HTA) by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) throughout 2021 using adapted methods for antimicrobials. The HTA will be used to decide the level of the subscription payment.
It is hoped that the new drugs paid for by the world’s first "subscription-style" payment model for antibiotics will be made available to UK patients potentially as early as 2022.
Suppliers can now register their interest for the scheme on NHS England’s eTendering Service.
Prof Gill Leng, Chief Executive, NICE, said: “We are witnessing the effects of one global pandemic, which has highlighted the threat of communicable disease. Alongside the threat of coronavirus is the increasing risk posed by antimicrobial resistance, exacerbated by a sparse antimicrobial development pipeline."
"That is why we need to incentivise investment in innovative antimicrobial drug development as soon as possible.”
