Diagnostic firm Cepheid has announced a new partnership with the Fleming Initiative, a global collaboration established by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Cepheid is the first diagnostic company to pledge support towards the Fleming Initiative’s collaborative efforts for real-world solutions. The new partnership will be introduced at an event in New York aligned with the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting about AMR.
The Fleming Initiative brings together research scientists, policymakers, clinicians, behavioural experts, public and commercial partners to provide the networks, expertise and skills to provide equitable solutions to AMR at the global scale.
"Almost everyone who has visited a healthcare provider for an undiagnosed infection has taken antibiotics as a preventative measure at one time in our lives. Too often, we are given broad spectrum antibiotics for viral infections or allergic reactions instead of as a treatment for a bacterial infection. That's how antimicrobial resistance develops," said Vitor Rocha, President of Cepheid. "Accurate diagnostics are at the frontline of the battle to eliminate preventative antibiotic use. Every one of us can help reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by requesting an accurate diagnostic test to identify the source of an infection before we begin a course of antibiotics."
The Initiative will draw on diverse expertise and public involvement to tackle antimicrobial resistance from all angles. The partners will work together to catalyse worldwide action in the fight against AMR where poverty, climate change, and health inequality exacerbate the issues caused by drug-resistant infections.
"At the Fleming Initiative we aim to unlock powerful new ideas to drive significant change in the fight against AMR. This requires collective innovation across industries, from practitioners to policy makers and the public," said Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative. "I am delighted to welcome Cepheid as our first diagnostics partner. Currently 20% of antibiotic prescriptions given in primary care lack an appropriate diagnosis. We have to do better. Cepheid's expertise will be essential to our efforts to ensure antibiotics work for generations to come."
Cepheid's significant pledge to the Fleming Initiative will be used for collaborative scientific and clinical research, with a focus on strengthening and expanding the use of in vitro diagnostics to support antimicrobial stewardship programs to enable responsible antibiotic use and control the rise of resistant infections. The collaboration will focus initially on the most critical areas of AMR:
- Encourage active screening for carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) for earlier detection of critical infections and colonisation
- Implementation of community-based acute respiratory infection (ARI) testing and care pathways to provide decentralised diagnostic and treatment pathways
- Accelerate a precision medicine approach for sepsis to identify and treat patients with a particular sepsis response state.
