House hearing spotlights AMR threat

Kicking off a new week and month with a recap of Friday’s AMR hearing, and a look at new biotech shirts on sale now at lululemon. (565 words, 2 minutes, 49 seconds)

House hearing spotlights AMR threat, PASTEUR Act

Current market mechanisms are inadequate to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but pending legislation could help, said lawmakers and experts during Friday’s hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

How bad is it? AMR already kills more than 35,000 in the U.S. annually, and we lost ground in the fight against AMR during the pandemic, said Mary Denigan-Macauley, Health Care Director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). 

Specific concerns: 

• AMR disproportionately impacts older adults, said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
• The resistant fungus causing Valley Fever has spread beyond its usual range to Texas, said Michael Burgess(R-TX).
• Hurricanes increase the threat of AMR, Kat Cammack (R-FL) noted. 

We need to limit use of antibiotics—ideally, giving them to only a small group of patients.

But this creates a market challenge—because we can’t fund antibiotic R&D on sales alone, witnesses said. A subscription model would guarantee a minimum return on R&D investment to ensure we have AMR defenses ready, witnesses said.

The PASTEUR Act, reintroduced in Congress Thursday, would increase the pipeline of new antibiotics through this subscription model, said co-sponsor Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) on Friday. Witnesses Amanda Jezek of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (ISDA) and Kevin Outterson, Executive Director of CARB-X, agreed. 

Read more in-depth coverage of the hearing in Bio.News. 

Watch the highlights:

BIO supports the PASTEUR Act: “The subscription model under PASTEUR is an innovative way to pay for novel antimicrobials while supporting the pillars of appropriate use. We can thereby gain the leg up we need on superbugs,” says Emily Wheeler, BIO’s Director of Infectious Disease Policy—read more.

More Health News:

Wall Street Journal (Opinion): Europe’s threat to drug patents
“The European Commission’s draft legislation is billed as the biggest overhaul in the continent’s pharmaceutical regulation in 20 years, but please don’t call it reform. While ostensibly aimed at expanding access to new drugs, reductions in IP protection will do the opposite while driving away investment,” says the WSJ Editorial Board.

Biotech shirts made by lululemon, Geno are on sale now

Leisure-wear giant lululemon is now selling shirts made from Geno’s plant-based nylon, which looks and feels like traditional nylon but is produced without fossil fuels. 

What: The same price as nylon made from fossil fuels and ready to “drop in” to the production process, Geno’s plant-based nylon is made from fruit sugars fermented in yeast gene edited to evoke a specific reaction.

Who: The nylon is made by BIO member Geno, which is innovating a host of biobased materials from a palm oil substitute that prevents deforestation to beauty products, health drinks, and raw materials for production.

A fruitful partnership: The product is in stores just two years after lululemon took equity in Geno to enable development.

The impact: The sales, which began April 18, advance lululemon’s goal of using only renewed or recycled nylon—their most common raw material—by 2030. 

What they’re saying: “We’ve proven that Geno’s plant-based nylon technology works, and we look forward to it working at scale,” to dramatically reduce the nylon industry’s environmental footprint, says Geno’s Sasha Calder. 

Read our interview with Geno on Bio.News.

President Biden’s Monday: Discussing political ties and defense issues with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has a more U.S.-friendly stance than his predecessor, according to Reuters. 

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The House is in recess; expect a slower week than the past few.Tomorrow, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will be marking up several bills including S. 1339, the PBM Reform Act. And later in the week the committee will look at the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA).