The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with several domestic and international agencies to address antibiotic resistance. Among the partners are the Wellcome Trust of London, the AMR Centre of Alderley Park (Cheshire, United Kingdom) and Boston University School of Law.

The Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, or CARB-X, is a global innovation project for antibiotic products research and development. CARB-X partners bring together multiple capabilities to find potential antibiotics and move them through preclinical testing to enable safety and efficacy testing in humans and greatly reducing the business risk, which can make advanced development more attractive to private sector investment.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the National Institutes of Health will join the Wellcome Trust and the AMR Centre in joint oversight of the project. Two U.S. non-profit life science accelerators – Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in Cambridge and the California Life Sciences Institute of South San Francisco, will provide support for early-stage antibiotic development projects.

Made possible through a cooperative agreement, the partnership promotes innovation and could provide hundreds of millions of dollars over five years to increase the number of antibiotics in the drug-development pipeline.

Starting in September, CARB-X will review applications for sub-awards to determine the most promising products to support. The agencies and organizations providing funding to CARB-X, namely BARDA, will have a final say in which projects are supported under the cooperative agreement.