The once and future Pasteur Act to incentivize antibiotic discovery and development

It doesn't look like Congress is going to act this year to pass the Pasteur Act.

Here's the NY Times:

Can a Federally Funded ‘Netflix Model’ Fix the Broken Market for Antibiotics? Shortages and drug-resistant germs have renewed attention on a $6 billion proposal in Congress that would reconfigure the way antimicrobial drugs are developed and sold. By Andrew Jacobs

"The broken marketplace for new antimicrobial drugs has stirred debate over a bill, languishing in Congress, that would dramatically reconfigure the way antibiotics are discovered and sold in the United States.

"The $6 billion measure, the Pasteur Act, would upend the conventional model that ties antibiotic profits to sales volume by creating a subscription-like system that would provide pharmaceutical companies an upfront payment in exchange for unlimited access to a drug once it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

...

The measure attempts to address the vexing economics of antibiotics: Promising new drugs often gather dust on pharmacy shelves because health providers would rather save them for patients whose infections don’t respond to existing ones. That’s because the more frequently an antibiotic is used, the more quickly it will lose its curative punch as the targeted bacteria develop the ability to survive.

...

"The bill, a decade in the making, has bipartisan support and is widely backed by researchers, health care policy experts and drug company executives. But as momentum for the bill has gained steam, opposition has emerged from a small group of doctors and health care advocates, many of them critics of Big Pharma. They say the bill is a drug-industry giveaway — and unlikely to address the problem of antibiotic resistance.

...

"It can cost a $1 billion or more to bring a new drug to market, but earning back that investment has proved increasingly elusive. Unlike blockbuster medications for chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, most antibiotics are prescribed for just days or weeks. Many hospitals, unwilling to pay the high prices that accompany new therapies, prefer to rely on cheaper but less effective options, experts say.

A number of antibiotic start-ups have gone bankrupt in recent years, sending a chill through the industry."

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Here's some more background from U. Minnesota:

For PASTEUR Act advocates, the finish line is in sight for antibiotic development aid by Chris Dall,   December 6, 2022

"With the clock ticking on Congress to finish its business before the end of the year, groups representing infectious disease and public health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry are trying to push a bill across the finish line that could change the antibiotic development landscape.

"The bill, known as the PASTEUR (Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance) Act, would create a subscription-style payment model in which the federal government would pay up front for access to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antibiotics that target drug-resistant pathogens and meet critical, unmet health needs.

"The aim of the bill, which would delink companies' profits from the volume of antibiotics sold, is to help solve the market challenges that have led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon antibiotic development and contributed to the weak pipeline for new, innovative antibiotics.

"Originally introduced in 2020 and re-introduced in June 2021, the PASTEUR Act, according to advocates, is closer than ever to becoming a reality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid growing concern about rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates and the lack of new antibiotics. But time is running out, and the how the bill might fare in the next Congress is unclear."