Diagnostics firm Cepheid has entered a partnership with the Fleming Initiative, a global collaboration that has been established by the Imperial College Healthcare National Health Service Trust and Imperial College London to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
The Fleming Initiative and Cepheid will introduce the partnership at an event in New York aligned with the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting about AMR.
In a statement, Cepheid said that it will focus on collaborative scientific and clinical research to strengthen and expand the use of IVD to support antimicrobial stewardship programs to enable responsible antibiotic use and control the rise of resistant infections.
The initial critical areas of AMR that Cepheid says the collaboration will focus on are active screening for carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) to detect critical infections and colonization earlier, the implementation of community-based acute respiratory infection testing and care to enable decentralized diagnostics and care, and the acceleration of a precision medicine approach in identifying and treating patients with particular sepsis responses.
AMR kills over 1 million people globally each year and is recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 public health threats. It is a growing challenge treating potentially fatal infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, Escherichia coli (E. coli), and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
AMR has been caused in part by the widespread misuse and overuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial medications. Global awareness and behavior change are necessary to effectively address AMR, Cepheid added.
The Fleming Initiative brings together research scientists, policymakers, clinicians, behavioral experts, and public and commercial partners to develop equitable solutions for AMR on a global scale.
The initiative will establish a global network of centers in strategic locations that will find, test, and scale solutions to AMR. The first Fleming Centre will be based at St. Mary's Hospital in London.
