Amid mounting concern over antibiotic resistance, a coalition of academics and advocacy groups is urging Congress not to pass legislation to reward drug companies for developing new treatments, because they argue the bill fails to require acceptable clinical trial standards and is tantamount to a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry.
The legislation, known as the Pasteur Act, would encourage drug development by creating a subscription-style business model in which the U.S. government offers upfront payments to drugmakers in exchange for unlimited access to their antibiotics. The idea is to enable pharmaceutical companies to recover their costs and make an appropriate profit without having to sell large volumes of antibiotics.
The concept has been pushed as a way to overcome a vexing problem. To develop a novel antibiotic, drugmakers look to charge a certain price to recoup investments and make a profit. But hospitals only get reimbursed for use, so a novel drug may be less appealing if it sells for a higher cost. As a result, hospitals prefer not to build inventories of more expensive, new antibiotics that will sit on shelves.
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