The AMR Ac­tion Fund — backed by a hand­ful of heavy­weight phar­ma play­ers in­clud­ing Pfiz­er, Eli Lil­ly, Mer­ck, John­son & John­son, Boehringer In­gel­heim and Glax­o­SmithK­line — has made its first two in­vest­ments in the hopes of ad­dress­ing the loom­ing threat of an­timi­cro­bial re­sis­tance.

But ac­cord­ing to CEO Hen­ry Skin­ner, there’s plen­ty more to go around this year.

AMR has promised to in­vest over $100 mil­lion this year in com­pa­nies de­vel­op­ing an­timi­cro­bials that can over­come re­sis­tance, start­ing with Adap­tive Phage Ther­a­peu­tics (APT) and Ve­na­torx Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

The for­mer was found­ed in 2016 by re­tired NIH sci­en­tist Carl Mer­ril and his son to build on ear­ly work Mer­ril did in phage ther­a­py, or the use of bac­te­rio­phages to treat bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tions. The com­pa­ny is com­pil­ing a mas­sive li­brary of phages — nat­u­ral­ly oc­cur­ring virus­es that in­fect and kill bac­te­ria — which could po­ten­tial­ly pro­vide pro­tec­tion against high-pri­or­i­ty, an­tibi­ot­ic-re­sis­tant bac­te­ria.

The phages are be­ing test­ed on a range of in­fec­tions, in­clud­ing pros­thet­ic joint in­fec­tions, bone in­fec­tions (os­teomyelitis), and lung in­fec­tions. The Mary­land-based biotech snagged $8 mil­lion from the US De­part­ment of De­fense last Sep­tem­ber (bring­ing the DoD’s to­tal con­tract up to $31.2 mil­lion), and AMR kicked in on a re­cent $61 mil­lion Se­ries B round.

Penn­syl­va­nia-based Ve­na­torx is a bit fur­ther along, with its lead an­tibi­ot­ic — be­ing de­vel­oped for com­pli­cat­ed uri­nary tract in­fec­tions, hos­pi­tal-ac­quired pneu­mo­nia and ven­ti­la­tor-as­so­ci­at­ed bac­te­r­i­al pneu­mo­nia (HABP/VABP) — slat­ed for an NDA fil­ing at the end of this year, ac­cord­ing to the com­pa­ny’s web­site.

Found­ed in 2010, the com­pa­ny’s name comes from the Latin word “ve­na­tor,” mean­ing ‘“hunter,” and “Rx.” AMR led the com­pa­ny’s Se­ries C round. Ve­na­torx didn’t dis­close how much it raised, but it did add that it’s al­so re­ceived in­vest­ments from the NI­AID and BAR­DA.

AMR was launched back in 2020 by the In­ter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Man­u­fac­tur­ers & As­so­ci­a­tions, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the WHO, and backed by a long list of drug­mak­ers. More than 20 com­pa­nies have chipped in — and with an ini­tial $1 bil­lion, the fund set a goal last year to bring two to four new an­tibi­otics to pa­tients by 2030.

“We will con­tin­ue in­vest­ing in promis­ing biotechs in the years ahead to en­sure that pa­tients around the world have the treat­ments they need,” Skin­ner said in a news re­lease.

But is it too lit­tle, too late? Drug-re­sis­tant bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tions kill an es­ti­mat­ed 1.27 mil­lion peo­ple an­nu­al­ly, more than HIV/AIDs or malar­ia, ac­cord­ing to Bill Burns, board chair of the AMR Ac­tion Fund. By 2050, ex­perts guess an­timi­cro­bial re­sis­tance could lead to as many as 10 mil­lion deaths per year.

And de­spite the ris­ing threat, Big Phar­ma has re­treat­ed from the risky field, where many an­tibi­otics fail in de­vel­op­ment, while oth­ers “with­er on the vine” due to a lack of avail­able fund­ing. The ones that do get ap­proved are of­ten used spar­ing­ly to pre­serve ef­fec­tive­ness and slow the de­vel­op­ment of fur­ther re­sis­tance.

“Our in­vest­ments are sub­stan­tial, but we alone are not enough to take on the glob­al chal­lenge of AMR,” Skin­ner said. “It is now im­per­a­tive that pol­i­cy­mak­ers around the world en­act mar­ket re­forms to sup­port in­vest­ment in these ur­gent­ly need­ed med­ica­tions.”

The mRNA player Moderna is further cementing its presence on the African continent.

Moderna announced on Thursday that it has finalized an agreement with Kenya’s government to partner up and bring an mRNA manufacturing facility to the east African nation. The new facility aims to manufacture up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually. Moderna also said the new facility will have the ability to spike its production capabilities to respond to public health emergencies on the continent or globally.

ViiV Healthcare has teamed up with the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool and three generic manufacturers to expand access to medicine that can prevent HIV.

ViiV and the Medicines Patent Pool jointly announced Thursday that the MPP signed sub-licensing agreements with Aurobindo, Cipla and Viatris to manufacture generics of a long-acting form of cabotegravir for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). As a result of the agreement, the manufacturers will be able to develop, manufacture and supply generic versions of cabotegravir LA in 90 countries — subject to regulatory approvals.