"New technologies are required to fill the gap and reverse resistance to existing antibiotics"

Established in 2021, Lixa is an Australian biotechnology company developing revolutionary, broadly applicable and scalable solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The firm is developing NeoX, a disruptive, proprietary, antibiofilm platform technology to resolve recalcitrant, resistant and recurring bacterial infections across human, animal and environmental health. Dr Maud Eijkenboom, CEO, Lixa highlights the state of AMR fight in Asia and why investing in newer technologies such as biofilms is crucial to defeat AMR. Edited excerpts;

- Ayesha Siddiqui

Established in 2021, Lixa is an Australian biotechnology company developing revolutionary, broadly applicable and scalable solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The firm is developing NeoX, a disruptive, proprietary, antibiofilm platform technology to resolve recalcitrant, resistant and recurring bacterial infections across human, animal and environmental health. Dr Maud Eijkenboom, CEO, Lixa highlights the state of AMR fight in Asia and why investing in newer technologies such as biofilms is crucial to defeat AMR. Edited excerpts;

What is being done to tackle AMR within APAC?

In 2015, the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly endorsed The Global Action Plan for containment of AMR, which called for participating countries to develop their own AMR National Action Plan (NAP). To date, between 73 and 100 per cent of APAC countries have created, and made available, their NAP. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done. An overprescription of antibiotics in humans fuels the AMR cycle and creates more superbugs. Therefore there is a need to raise more awareness of AMR within the communities. The elephant in the room is the use of antibiotics in livestock, which can cover 70 per cent of all antibiotics usage in the world. We need nonantibiotic approaches to alleviate this situation.

In your opinion, which APAC countries have shown significant progress in addressing AMR? What specific measures or interventions have contributed to their success?

Let’s look at a few countries and their attempts to combat AMR.