The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has announced a next-generation tripartite Indo-European collaboration to address the challenges posed by Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), with science, innovation, policy, and stewardship.
According to C-CAMP, antibiotics such as penicillin are pillars of modern medicine that have enabled decades of healthcare advances. However indiscriminate use of antibiotics over time in food systems, agriculture, and health have now brought us to a situation where vulnerable populations particularly neonates, elderly, and immunocompromised are greatly exposed to life-threatening, intractable infections.
A UN report projects an annual loss of nearly 10 million lives globally by 2050 due to AMR.
To tackle this very serious problem, global bodies including the WHO, the G7 Health deliberation, and the G20 countries in the 2023 meeting in New Delhi have pushed for the One Health approach.
“This tripartite agreement welcomes a new entrant, Swissnex in India, the Swiss science and technology consulate part of a Swiss global network connecting Switzerland and the world in education, research, and innovation, as part of the WAAH! Accelerator which was originally signed between the Dutch Embassy and C-CAMP in December 2022,” C-CAMP said.
The WAAH! Accelerator is working towards emphasizing co-creation and co-development of new technologies in the water, agriculture, animal, and human health towards fulfilling the One Health approach to address AMR.
This Accelerator was set up as a C-CAMP partnership with NADP (Netherlands Antibiotic Development Platform) and AMR Global, both Netherlands-based organizations.
“With Swissnex in India joining this programme, this agreement will not only encourage path-breaking science but also prioritise faster impact on-field nationally and globally,” C-CAMP said.
It added that the partners have prioritised problem areas within AMR that they will address in a phase-wise manner. To start with WAAH! plans to roll out a global AMR challenge in early 2024 after a detailed needs-assessment exercise by the stakeholders, and identification of a subset of AMR challenges that can be addressed with innovations, while efficiently leveraging the respective Innovation networks
