The pharmaceutical industry has an important role to play, especially in sustainable manufacturing of antibiotics and advocating forward-looking environment policies for pharma manufacturing, to contain Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), a top executive of a pharma MNC said as he backed the Centre’s new action plan (NAP) in this regard.
The Centre has called for a multi-sectoral action from all the stakeholders to contain AMR under the NAP, announced by Health Minister JP Nadda last month. NAP offers an operational roadmap through six strategic priorities — multi-sectoral approach, surveillance, monitoring and regulatory frameworks, mobilising sustained funding and human resources, initiating awareness, knowledge-sharing and behaviour change under Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan and other initiatives of the Government.
The Delhi Declaration on AMR was signed on April 19, 2017 at the Inter-Ministerial Consultation on AMR in the presence of Union Health Minister. The plan also calls for public-private partnership (PPP) and for which for the first time ever there is a consensus among 11 Union Ministries to recognise that AMR is a serious concern that requires urgent action.
“This is truly a historic and much-awaited development, keeping in mind that India is among the top manufacturers and consumers of antibiotics globally, and by lieu of this, we should also take the lead in tackling AMR. This is an issue that necessarily requires a multi-stakeholder approach,” said Frans Vlaar, Business Unit Director, EA and AMEA (Europe, America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa), DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals.
He said that countries around the world have their action plans on AMR and varied strategies for tackling it. “We recently signed the UNGA industry Roadmap for combating AMR committing to follow the global best practices and create awareness about AMR amongst stakeholders, and hope other players will join us in this initiative as well,” Frans said.