Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share #58 The Global War Against Antibiotic Resistance - Christine Aardal | Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
#58 The Global War Against Antibiotic Resistance - Christine Aardal | Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Dr. Christine Aardal is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Dr. Aardal studies antimicrobial resistance, which is when the drugs we use to treat bacterial infections become ineffective. Today, she specifically explains how these drugs are developed and the economics of why antimicrobial research is underfunded.
To learn more about the Dr. Aardal's work, please see her profile
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:23 What is antimicrobial resistance?
05:50 Why it's dangerous
08:15 How antibiotics are made
12:53 Costs of making antibiotics
15:20 Who pays for antibiotics
22:44 Issues with antibiotic funding
29:26 Solutions in antibiotic funding
34:09 What's next in the industry
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Aardal used:
- Schistosomiasis: A disease caused by parasitic worms in many developing countries. It is the second most deadly parasitic disease after malaria.
- Antibiotics: Medical compounds that specifically kill bacteria.
- Antimicrobials: Medical compounds that kill microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc.
- Antimicrobial resistance: When some microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. develop protection against our antimicrobial drugs.
- Antibiotic resistance: When bacteria specifically develop protection against our antibiotic drugs.
- Clinical trials: experiments done to test whether medicines work in humans.
- Monopoly time period: A guarantee for a company that it is the only one that can make a certain product for a certain number of years. This makes sure the company does not face competition in selling its product.
- Dry Wells: A metaphor for pharmaceutical drugs developed that turn out to not be promising, like drilling a well for water in an area where the land turns out dry.
- Microbe: another word for microorganisms
- Pathogen: Microorganisms that cause humans harm
- Health technology assessments: studies run by governments in some countries to decide which healthcare technologies to fund.
- Out of pocket: Paying with one's own money (vs. having governments or insurers pay for a cost instead of an individual).
- Public goods: goods/services where many people can benefit without blocking others from accessing the goods/services. And where it's difficult to control who accesses the goods/services. Ex: education
- CARB-X: A coalition of governments and nonprofits funding research on antibiotics. More details: https://carb-x.org
- GARDP: Global Antiobiotic Research and Development Partnership. An organisation funding antibiotic research and ensuring antibiotics are available to those in low and middle-income countries. More details: https://gardp.org/
- Pull incentive: Yearly funding that governments give to pharmaceutical companies so the companies keep researching new antimicrobials every year.
- Bacteriophages: Viruses that attack specific species of bacteria.
View all episodes
By The Knowledge ArchivesDr. Christine Aardal is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Dr. Aardal studies antimicrobial resistance, which is when the drugs we use to treat bacterial infections become ineffective. Today, she specifically explains how these drugs are developed and the economics of why antimicrobial research is underfunded.
To learn more about the Dr. Aardal's work, please see her profile
Timeline:
00:00 Introduction
02:23 What is antimicrobial resistance?
05:50 Why it's dangerous
08:15 How antibiotics are made
12:53 Costs of making antibiotics
15:20 Who pays for antibiotics
22:44 Issues with antibiotic funding
29:26 Solutions in antibiotic funding
34:09 What's next in the industry
P.S. Some fancy words Dr. Aardal used:
- Schistosomiasis: A disease caused by parasitic worms in many developing countries. It is the second most deadly parasitic disease after malaria.
- Antibiotics: Medical compounds that specifically kill bacteria.
- Antimicrobials: Medical compounds that kill microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc.
- Antimicrobial resistance: When some microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. develop protection against our antimicrobial drugs.
- Antibiotic resistance: When bacteria specifically develop protection against our antibiotic drugs.
- Clinical trials: experiments done to test whether medicines work in humans.
- Monopoly time period: A guarantee for a company that it is the only one that can make a certain product for a certain number of years. This makes sure the company does not face competition in selling its product.
- Dry Wells: A metaphor for pharmaceutical drugs developed that turn out to not be promising, like drilling a well for water in an area where the land turns out dry.
- Microbe: another word for microorganisms
- Pathogen: Microorganisms that cause humans harm
- Health technology assessments: studies run by governments in some countries to decide which healthcare technologies to fund.
- Out of pocket: Paying with one's own money (vs. having governments or insurers pay for a cost instead of an individual).
- Public goods: goods/services where many people can benefit without blocking others from accessing the goods/services. And where it's difficult to control who accesses the goods/services. Ex: education
- CARB-X: A coalition of governments and nonprofits funding research on antibiotics. More details: https://carb-x.org
- GARDP: Global Antiobiotic Research and Development Partnership. An organisation funding antibiotic research and ensuring antibiotics are available to those in low and middle-income countries. More details: https://gardp.org/
- Pull incentive: Yearly funding that governments give to pharmaceutical companies so the companies keep researching new antimicrobials every year.
- Bacteriophages: Viruses that attack specific species of bacteria.