Enhancing global insight into AMR spread and generation: prospects and limitations of the WHO and quadripartite research agendas

Abstract

In Summer 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) WHO-World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Quadripartite published two separate research agendas on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While the publication of these research agendas on AMR creates a significant opportunity to align research priorities internationally, we emphasize a number of limitations. Firstly, the production of two separate AMR research agendas, in human health and One Health, rather than one integrated research agenda, risks the continued deprioritization of the One Health agenda. Furthermore, neither research agenda addressed the need to study the relationship between climate change and AMR despite growing evidence to suggest this may be significant. Finally, there are also missed opportunities in directing the study of appropriate treatment regimens and in clarifying the overall most resource-efficient path to combatting AMR. Moving forward, the international research agenda for AMR needs to be continually redefined in an inclusive, transparent and independent manner. This could be the task of the proposed, but so far not realized, Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR.