Five European pharmaceutical companies are teaming up with leading academics as part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative to combat antimicrobial resistance and speed up research for new antibiotics. The $285 million effort aims to take a collaborative approach to address the rising global threat from antibiotic resistance and address some of the key barriers to the development of effective antibiotics.

“This is a historic opportunity for Europe to overcome a public health problem which threatens millions of lives worldwide, says Michel Goldman, initiative’s executive director. “For researchers in universities, hospitals and small and medium-sized enterprises it is also a unique opportunity to speed up their research in the area of antimicrobial resistance, as the collaboration will give them access to the knowledge and expertise of the pharmaceutical industry.”

The collaboration is the first under the European Commission’s Action Plan announced in November 2011 against the rising threats from antimicrobial resistance, which cause 25,000 deaths in the European Union every year. With only two new classes of antibiotics brought to market in the last 30 years, the plan was formulated in response to the dire need for new antibiotics. Most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned their development because the scientific challenges and complex regulatory requirements have made it financially unviable.

“Our researchers and the scientific community have realized that we can only deal with this urgent threat by working together and pooling our knowledge,” says Richard Bergström, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. “The Innovative Medicines Initiative is perfectly suited for such open innovation. And by co-funding clinical trials, policy makers in Europe have created a strong incentive for companies and investors to come back to this field of research.”

The five drugmakers participating in the program include GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Janssen, and Basilea Pharmaceutica. The proposed research program will initially focus on sharing information, supporting potential antibiotics already in the pipeline through new research and improved clinical trial design, and continuing research and discovery of new antibiotics.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative has issued a call for proposals in an effort to engage multiple public partners throughout Europe. The antimicrobials program is initially budgeted with $285 million (€223.7 million) with $137 million (€109 million) of initiative funding and $148 million (€114.7 million) through in kind contributions by the participating pharmaceutical companies.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative is the world’s largest public-private partnership in healthcare with a mission to improve the environment for pharmaceutical innovation in Europe by engaging and supporting networks of industrial and academic experts in collaborative research projects. Its research programs are funded through a $1.25 billion (€1 billion) contribution by the European Union, which is matched by in kind contributions worth at least another $1.25 billion (€1 billion) from the member companies of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. The Initiative expects total costs for the antimicrobial program may reach as much as $750 million (€600 million) over the next seven years.