The current pipeline of candidate antimicrobial products is insufficient to counter the threat of antimicrobial resistance .
A novel collaborative model is needed to spur innovation and investment towards new antimicrobial products to repopulate the early development pipeline.
In 2014,
the United States Government released the National Strategy for Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria.
A component of the National Strategy is to establish a Biopharmaceutical Accelerator for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria [Accelerator] to fund Research and Development (R&D) activities to help progress candidate products from the proof-of-concept stage through pre-clinical development.
Candidates that graduate from the Accelerator will be better positioned for R&D investment and clinical development.
There are various Accelerator models in the marketplace.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Accelerator will be a non-equity accelerator that provides non-dilutive funding to product developers for R&D activities and enables the product developers to retain full ownership and control of their company.
The Accelerator for CARB will be focusing only on antibacterial products.
BARDA will provide direct funding and NIAID will provide in-kind services (e.g.
preclinical services, technical expertise) to the Accelerator [the cooperative agreement recipient] that will manage a portfolio of investments of early stage antimicrobial product candidates.