Landscape of Push Funding in Antibiotic Research: Current Status and Way Forward

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Antibiotic resistance has become one of the biggest threats to global health. The occurrence of resistance is a natural phenomenon of bacterial evolution, but their inappropriate use in humans and the environment is hastening the process at a reckless speed. The speed of developing resistance is at par or, in fact, more than the speed of novel antibiotic development. Most of the big pharmaceutical companies have left antibiotic research due to the high risk of failure and poor return on investment. Antibiotic research is mostly carried out by academic institutes and small- and medium-sized enterprises. However, they lack sufficient funds to take the compounds from early-and-mid-stage to clinical trials and market. To make this possible, several government and non-government organizations worldwide have come forward to incentivize research through push funding mechanisms. The positive impact of these mechanisms, which started around a decade ago, is now visible, with fair improvements in research pipelines in the last five years. However, a large landscape of push incentives across the globe and staggered funding across different stages of development make the process complex. Efforts in various forms are now being implemented and proposed to streamline and smoothen push funding mechanisms for reinvigorating antibiotic research. ABSTRACT: The growing need for effective antibiotics is attributed to the intrinsic ability of bacteria to develop survival mechanisms. The speed at which pathogens develop resistance is at par or even faster than the discovery of newer agents. Due to the enormous cost of developing an antibiotic and poor return on investment, big pharmaceutical companies are stepping out of the antibiotic research field, and the world is now heading towards the silent pandemic of antibiotic resistance. Lack of investment in research has further led to the anemic antibiotic pipeline. To overcome these challenges, various organizations have come forward with push funding to financially assist antibiotic developers. Although push funding has somewhat reinvigorated the dwindled field of antibiotic development by bearing the financial risks of failure, the landscape is still large and staggered. Most of the funding is funneled towards the early stages; however, to carry the promising compounds forward, equal or more funding is required formid- and late-stage research. To some extent, the complexity associated with accessing the funding mechanisms has led to their underutilization. In the present review, we discuss several major push funding mechanisms, issues in their effective utilization, recent strategies adopted, and a way forward to streamline funding in antibiotic research.