The federal government is putting millions of dollars into research efforts aimed at combating drug-resistant bacterial infections.
US President Joe Biden was expected to announce on Wednesday that his administration is investing $100 million into research on superbugs, according to a White House official. Biden was expected to unveil the research initiative during a meeting in San Francisco with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. At the time this article was published, the announcement hadn’t been made.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a government research agency that Biden and Congress launched last year, is expected to carry out the research. The latest antimicrobial program will be the agency’s largest investment to date, a White House official told Reuters.
About 35,000 people, including those in long-term care, die per year due to infections that are caused by bacteria that’s resistant to antibiotics. In recent years with more people hospitalized for COVID-19, the problem may have grown as many took antibiotics.
Global health experts continue to warn about the increasing number of antimicrobial-resistant microbes that arise from misuse and overuse of antibiotics. This encourages microorganisms to evolve into “superbugs.” New antibiotics are needed to battle the resistant bacteria, but antibiotics aren’t especially profitable so drugmakers have steered clear of making them, Reuters reported.
The news comes as ARPA-H announced it will be based in the nation’s capital and have three hubs in the US. Those hubs will be in Dallas, Cambridge and Washington DC. The Department of Health and Human Services is the parent agency of ARPA-H.
Last month, researchers announced that Clovibactin seemed to be able to destroy harmful bacteria and even multi-resistant superbugs. Researchers believe that Clovibactin, which kills bacteria in an unusual way, can make it more challenging for the bacteria to develop a resistance against it.
