Antibiotic resistance: a global economic and social threat

Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise and threatens healthcare systems. This issue has long been present in all global debates surrounding the healthcare system due to the danger it poses to society, both at a health and economic level.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the number of deaths due to antibiotic resistance will be 3.5 million per year in 2050. causing economic damage of up to $100 billion..

The World Health Organization (WHO), for its part, also warns about this problem, which by 2050 will become the leading cause of death in the world, in addition to cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

According to a recent study from the Global Research Project on Antimicrobial Resistance, the population most affected will be people over seventy years of age – the age at which mortality can increase by 80%.

Parliament’s pharmaceutical reform promotes research against multi-resistant bacteria

A later assessment published in Lancet expects that By 2050, more than 39 million people will die from antibiotic-resistant infections.. Despite all these negative outlooks for the future, antibiotic resistance has gained importance at the United Nations, where the first debate on the issue began back in 2016.

Since then, various steps have been taken to combat this threat, which, according to experts, does not exempt any country from its consequences. However, the United States and Europe are focusing their efforts on combating antibiotic resistance through a half-dozen public and privately funded organizations.

The European Union (EU) pharmaceutical reform promotes the use of transfer vouchers, which stimulate research into antibiotics that combat multi-resistant bacteria. This is a bonus that allows a company to receive one year of regulatory data protection for its products that apply to another product or to be sold to another company.

Spain has developed a plan to tackle antibiotic resistance in 2022 with a two-year perspective.

Countries such as Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have been pioneers in implementing comprehensive policies to combat antimicrobial resistance. Spain, for its part, has a National Plan to Combat Antibiotic Resistance, the latest forecast for 2024 was drawn up in September 2022.

It proposes, first and foremost, surveillance of antibiotic consumption with coordinated development across the entire National Health System (NHS), as well as preventing the need for antibiotic use. Research strategy is also critical to addressing this issue.