Key achievements on antibiotic resistance during the Swedish EU Council Presidency

2023-06-30

Today June 30 marks the last day of the Swedish Presidency of the European Council where antibiotic resistance was successfully lifted to the top of the health policy agenda. ReAct looks back at our efforts to place antibiotic resistance on the presidency agenda and what was achieved over the last six months.

Back when Sweden last held the presidency in 2009, ReAct played a central role in placing antibiotic resistance on the presidency agenda, and a conference on antibiotic Research & Development was organized which today is still considered as a milestone in antibiotic Research & Development policy discussions.

Swedish Presidency instrumental to advance global antibiotic resistance efforts

Against this background, ReAct was keen to ensure that the Swedish Presidency this time was also instrumental for making advances on global efforts to address antibiotic resistance, global governance discussions and well taking stock of antibiotic Research & Development.

ReAct engagement and report

ReAct started engaging with relevant ministries two years ago following the publication of our report on “Ensuring sustainable access to effective antibiotics for everyone, everywhere” which outlines how governments can take an end-to-end approach to antibiotic Research & Development.

EU High-level Meeting on AMR

ReAct was therefore particularly pleased to see the high-level meeting on AMR organized by the Swedish Presidency and the preceding expert meeting on antibiotic Research & Development highlighting the end-to-end approach.

More: Sustainable access to effective antibiotics in focus at Swedish EU presidency High-level meeting

ReAct participated in both meetings and was pleased to provide support for the development of background documents, as well as the “Golden R&D and Access chain” which was presented by the Swedish Presidency at the expert meeting and the subsequent High-Level meeting.

Central findings from the meeting and potential solutions proposed, such as milestone prizes, research coordination and conditionalities on research funding, are likely now to be assessed further within the newly established European ‘Health Emergency and Response Agency’, HERA.

EC published two key documents

At the end of April the European Commission published two key documents relevant for antimicrobial resistance:

• the new proposal for pharmaceutical legislation which addresses new incentives for antibiotic Research & Development and
• a proposal for Council Conclusions on antimicrobial resistance.

While the legislative process on the pharmaceutical legislation will be ongoing for a number of months to come, the Council recommendations were negotiated at remarkable speed and was adopted at the June Ministerial meeting of Health ministers in Brussels.

These recommendations included – for the first time – landmark EU- and country-level targets for reductions of antibiotic consumption as well as targets for reducing a number of resistant bacterial infections.

Specific mention of ReAct

Moreover, the Council recommendations included a specific mention of ReAct, as one of a few central players to engage and support, in the EU’s global work to help addressing antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries.

More: Statement by ReAct – in response to the EC’s proposal for revising EU pharmaceutical legislation

More: Ambitious new AMR recommendations adopted by EU Member States today

High-level conference in Uppsala

Finally, in early May, ReAct organized a high-level conference on “Unlocking barriers for collective action on antibiotic resistance” in collaboration with Uppsala University, supported by the Beijer Foundation and the Swedish Research Council, and held within the framework of the Swedish Presidency.

On the second day of the conference the Swedish Minister of Health, Mr. Jacob Forssmed opened discussions with a keynote speech. This three-day conference brought together participant from more than 20 countries across the world. The meeting report with summary of discussions and central recommendations will be forthcoming after the summer.

More: Uppsala Dialogue meeting: Experts from more than 20 countries gathered for collaborative actions on ABR