In Australia, recent policy reviews, notably recommendation 21 of the final report of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Policy and Methods Review, Accelerating Access to the Best Medicine for Australians Now and into the Future, have highlighted the need for a pilot subscription funding model to enable accessibility to new and novel antimicrobials, and to incentivise their development.
In response, a roundtable was convened in Canberra in November 2024, hosted by the Australian Antimicrobial Resistance Network (AAMRNet) and MTPConnect, and facilitated by Evohealth.
The roundtable was made up of around 35 leaders in infectious disease management, from government, research, clinical practice and industry. Its goal was to develop a consensus on the design and implementation of an Australian pilot program, drawing on insights from global examples, particularly the recent experience of the United Kingdom (UK).
This report, Fighting Superbugs: The Path Forward, provides a summary of the discussion at the Antimicrobial Subscription Model roundtable held in November 2024. Considerations and next steps discussed during the forum have been synthesised and summarised.
To mark the roundtable, the MTPConnect Podcast conducted an interview with David Glover, Assistant Director of Medicines Analysis at NHS England who joined the roundtable to explain the UK model in detail. Listen to episode 185 ‘How the UK’s Subscription-Style Model is Improving Access to Much-Needed Antibiotics’ available here.