SOURCE: Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 9/18/14

Few issues in public health today are as critical and time urgent as combating the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. We are delighted to stand with the White House in the development and response to the President’s Executive Order and the National Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB) Strategy. Fighting antibiotic resistance is both a public health and national security priority. FDA has played a key role in the development of this important effort, and we already have made strides on many fronts to make sure that we have effective antibiotics for the future. Antibiotics are precious medicines that have saved millions of lives by treating infections caused by bacteria. But their misuse, and overuse, has serious health consequences and has contributed to antibiotic resistance—in which these drugs become less effective, or ineffective, against harmful bacteria.

The consequences of antibiotic resistance must not be underestimated. With each passing day, concern mounts that more patients will have few or no therapeutic options because of resistance to available therapies. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year at least 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths in the United States are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It is a high priority for FDA to work with our partners to find solutions for this serious public health problem. To address the need for effective antibiotics, FDA is working hard to ensure development of new strategies. These include vaccines to help prevent infection with bacteria in the first place; devices to aid in the accurate diagnosis of the cause of infection and of resistant infections; and new drugs to treat patients with serious infections for whom we have few, or no, treatment options because of resistance to currently available antibiotics. We have been engaging with outside groups to advance the science of clinical trials. For instance, we have worked with the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative on increasing the efficiency of clinical trials; with the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution to address overarching issues in antibiotic development, such as the major technical and financial barriers; and with the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on endpoints for studying antibiotics in clinical trials.

In fact, we recently joined NIH to hold a workshop to examine the technical challenges related to antibacterial product development and to discuss innovative regulatory and clinical trial approaches for bringing new products to market. (The final agenda and presentations are available online.) FDA also has been actively implementing the Generating Antibiotics Incentives Now (GAIN) Act, a provision within the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) to promote the development of antibacterial and antifungal drugs. To date, FDA has granted 57 Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designations under GAIN to 39 different unique molecules. Antibiotics that have a QIDP designation receive, upon request, priority review, typically shaving four months off review times, and fast track designation, which results in early consultation, including on clinical trial design, between FDA and antibiotic sponsors. QIDPs also can receive an additional five years of marketing exclusivity in addition to existing exclusivity periods at the time of approval.

We’re pleased that already three QIDP designated antibacterial drugs have been approved in the past few months: Dalbavancin in May 2014, Tedizolid Phosphate in June 2014 and Oritavancin in August 2014. Furthermore, FDA promotes the appropriate and responsible use of antibiotics in clinical medicine. Antibiotic labels contain information for health care professionals and patients on appropriate use. And we work to improve the integrity of the global supply chain for pharmaceutical products to minimize the chance of a patient receiving a substandard drug, which in some instances could promote antimicrobial resistance.

In addition, FDA has developed—and is working to implement—two strategies to ensure the judicious use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals. This is a vital step to better protect antibiotic effectiveness for both human and animal populations.

Accordingly, we asked the manufacturers of these antibiotics used in food-producing animals to remove all growth promotion indications. Once their labels have been changed, the products can no longer be used legally for growth promotion purposes, or without veterinary oversight. We have now secured the commitment of all 26 affected animal health companies, and 31 products have been withdrawn from the market. Two other companies have implemented label changes and we will be working with the other companies to make sure that they do so as well.

The second track will ensure that all remaining therapeutic uses of the affected medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals will take place under the supervision of a veterinarian. The agency continues to work under a three-year transition period, and we remain encouraged by the process. A successful strategy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria will require effort and input from all involved groups, including from health care professionals and patients themselves.

For our part, FDA continues to work with government partners, product developers and the scientific community as well as other critical stakeholders to address the unique and complex regulatory, scientific and policy challenges associated with this public health issue. The Executive Order and CARB strategy announced today will clearly boost our and the nation’s efforts to meet these challenges more effectively.