CONTACT: Natalie Shure, natalie.shure@treatmentactiongroup.org

September 25, 2024 –Treatment Action Group (TAG) congratulates Malta and Barbados, co-facilitators, and all United Nations (UN) Member States participating in the High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) upon the publication of the final draft of the Political Declaration.

TAG is pleased to see references to some of our top policy priorities in the declaration, including the central role of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in global AMR and the need to safeguard “the human right of everyone to participate in and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” (the Right to Science). We urge all participants to continue supporting these crucial recognitions and commitments, and we call on Member States to immediately craft and invest in policies that fulfill them.

We are, however, deeply disappointed in some of the last-minute changes that were made to the Political Declaration, weakening language on access to AMR countermeasures and overemphasizing the role of the private sector in the AMR research and development (R&D) pipeline. Private companies have been steadily decreasing their involvement in new antimicrobial R&D for several years; public and non-profit funders have stepped in to provide crucial investments; and scientists in academia, government, and product development partnerships have devoted countless hours to this lifesaving research.

Furthermore, the removal of specific funding targets and enforceable mechanisms makes it difficult to imagine how this declaration will make measurable progress in the fight against AMR. Where previous drafts addressed the need for an end-to-end approach to R&D and the key concept of “delinkage” between financing to innovate and revenues from resulting countermeasures, the final draft describes such initiatives only under “voluntary” circumstances for developers. In addition, the only funding goal mentioned in the declaration is $100 million by 2030; this is a mere fraction of what has been called for in addressing other global health challenges with lower mortality rates and will be wholly insufficient in meeting the dire needs of all people affected by AMR.

TAG urges Member States, in the strongest possible terms, to strengthen their commitments to financing and equitable access for new AMR countermeasures while maintaining the promising language on the Right to Science and the specific pathogens responsible for large swaths of deaths from AMR, such as tuberculosis. We know that, with enough political will and action, countries can achieve the goal of dramatically reducing AMR deaths; our future depends upon it.

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