Dr Manica Balasegaram
Executive Director of the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP)
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is turning routine infections into strategic vulnerabilities. As antibiotics fail, healthcare, humanitarian operations and outbreak response all become harder to sustain — especially in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
The same forces shaping today’s global insecurity — conflict, climate change and migration — are helping accelerate the spread of AMR. By 2050, the number of AMR-related deaths is expected to increase by as much as 70% by 2050. This can undermine health resilience, leaving us less equipped to face such threats.
In war zones like Ukraine, for example, drug-resistant infections are rising, driven by damaged infrastructure, limited treatment options and conditions allowing them to thrive. The same is true of rising temperatures, climate shocks and the scale and speed of international travel. This creates a dangerous feedback loop: insecurity fuels AMR, and AMR weakens our ability to respond to health crises.
Failing to prioritise AMR leaves countries exposed to a threat that doesn’t respect borders and cannot be contained by traditional means.
Why antibiotics matter
Without antibiotics, routine procedures like surgery, childbirth and cancer treatment become far riskier and health systems become weakened when they’re needed most. Failing to prioritise AMR leaves countries exposed to a threat that doesn’t respect borders and cannot be contained by traditional means.
Health resilience depends on antibiotics being developed, available, affordable and used appropriately wherever they’re needed. Today, the current model for antibiotic development is failing on all these fronts.
Conventional R&D tends to prioritise products for lucrative markets, rather than for countries bearing the greatest burden of drug-resistant infections. The result is a persistent mismatch between need and innovation — one reason why AMR is outpacing antibiotic development and why many countries lack reliable access to essential antibiotic treatments.
Public-private partnerships, like the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP), can help through the enhancement of a better model. By bringing together all stakeholders, our work spans the critical antibiotic development pathways — from R&D to manufacturing, regulatory readiness and commercialisation — to develop urgently needed antibiotics and ensure they’re made available to the patients who need them most.
In doing so, GARDP is helping to build a more resilient global health system — one that delivers the right drugs, in the right places, at the right time.
