Investment gaps in antimicrobial resistance research & development: trends in Europe, 2017-2021

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains one of the world's most pressing health, economic, and social challenges. To combat this crisis, innovative tools have been developed to enhance research and development (R&D) efforts like the Global AMR R&D Hub's Dynamic Dashboard. By aggregating data from projects worldwide, the Dynamic Dashboard highlights trends and gaps in AMR R&D investments, totalling more than 8.22 billion Euros in the period 2017-2021 across the One Health continuum - human, animal, plant and environment. Launched in March 2020, the Dynamic Dashboard supports global priority setting and decision-making in AMR research, fostering strategic planning to promote efficient use of international resources and cross sectoral collaboration in AMR R&D.

Recognizing the urgent need for innovative diagnostics, treatments, and prevention strategies against AMR, here we presented a comprehensive analysis of public and philanthropic investments in AMR R&D obtained from January 2017 to December 2021 across Europe.

We calculated the investments by One Health sector, year of funding, gross domestic product (GDP), research area, type of project, and infectious agent to raise awareness and promote global visibility of the R&D landscape in Europe. Our analysis revealed limited AMR R&D investments in the non-human sectors and non-bacterial topics, geographical polarization of funders, and some unaligned trends between the amount of investments and number of projects funded over the study period.

Harnessing these data-driven insights, we aimed to inform stakeholders and optimize the allocation of economic resources for AMR R&D. Prioritizing unmet needs with the greatest potential for impact in this field will expedite the development of effective solutions to mitigate the global threat of AMR.