NIH awards $11M to develop tests for drug-resistant bacteria

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is funneling more than $11 million toward 9 research programs developing rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance, a week after the Obama administration announced a plan to prioritize point-of-care testing to curtail the rise of drug-resistant bacteria.

The agency's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will award three companies and 6 academic organizations funds to develop a quick diagnostic tool that identifies antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae; Acinetobacter baumannii; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Enterobacter species; and Escherichia coli. Traditional tests can take up to three days to diagnose bacterial infections and require patient samples to be sent to labs. Diagnostic tools developed through the initiative must provide results in less than three hours and detect pathogens without using a culture, NIAID said in a statement.

Companies and academic institutions participating in the program include Salt Lake City, UT-based BioFire Diagnostics; Brigham Young University; The Broad Institute; University of California, Berkeley; and Bedford, MA-based First Light Biosciences.

"Antimicrobial resistance is a serious global health threat that is undermining our ability to effectively detect, treat and prevent infections," Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID's director, said in a statement. "One way we can combat drug resistance is by developing enhanced diagnostic tests that rapidly identify the bacteria causing an infection and their susceptibility to various antimicrobials. This will help physicians determine the most effective treatments for infected individuals and thereby reduce the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics that can contribute to the drug resistance problem."

NIAID's initiative addresses a growing problem, as more than 2 million people in the U.S. develop antibiotic-resistant infections each year and at least 23,000 people die as a result, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Rapid diagnostics like the ones developed through the program could reduce the need for expensive treatments and longer hospital stays, saving the healthcare system money in the long run.

The agency's move also comes as the White House unveiled a plan to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria including CRE, which was implicated in the recent superbug outbreaks at U.S. hospitals. Part of the effort involves developing FDA-approved diagnostics by 2020 that can quickly scan for drug-resistant bacteria and distinguish between bacterial and viral infections.

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