A press release from Congressman Peter Roskam:

House Approves Roskam Legislation to Combat Superbugs

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL) released the following statement after the House approved H.R. 6, a healthcare innovation package that included Roskam and Congressman Danny Davis’ (D-IL) bipartisan Developing an Innovative Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistant Microorganisms (DISARM) Act. The bill seeks to address the critical shortage of advanced antibiotics that can treat resistant infections, or “superbugs,” by modernizing how Medicare views these select drugs and reimbursing their use at cost.

“Today, we begin a new chapter in the battle against one of the most challenging health crises of our generation,” said Congressman Roskam. “Millions of Americans each year are diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant infections while thousands die as a result—and these alarming numbers will only continue to rise in the coming years if we don’t act now. To make matters worse, the development of new antibiotics capable of curing fatal infections has stalled over the past three decades. Fortunately, the bipartisan legislation approved by the House this morning will reinvigorate the antibiotics pipeline critical to fighting back against deadly superbugs by removing market barriers. I want to thank Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Congressman Davis for their hard work on this important public health issue, and I urge the Senate to pass this bill without delay.”

Click here or the image below to watch Congressman Roskam’s speech on the House floor in support of DISARM.

“I am extremely pleased to see bipartisan support intended to pave the road toward novel antibiotic development and appropriate antibiotic stewardship,” said Marc Scheetz, Pharm.D., Infectious Diseases Pharmacist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy. ”Development of new drugs and the proper utilization of previously developed antibiotics are key to effectively treating our patients with multi-drug resistant infections.”

“I commend the House for the passing of the DISARM Act, a bipartisan bill that is a vital step in addressing the public health crisis of antimicrobial resistant infections by incentivizing antimicrobial research and development,” said Dr. Latania Logan, Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center. “There are few drugs available to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, and even less antibiotics are available for the treatment of children. These infections are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. I support this legislation and applaud Congressman Roskam and Congressman Davis for their innovation and strategies to help address this growing pandemic.”

“In recent years, the frequency of highly-resistant organisms has been increasing in the United States and throughout the world,” said Dr. Sarah Sutton, Medical Director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. “At the same time, it’s become less financially appealing for drug companies to develop new antibiotics that treat those very resistant organisms. This legislation helps streamline the process and incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs that fight highly-resistant bacteria. I have needed to treat a few extremely ill patients with infections that are resistant to every antibiotic that is routinely used. If these types of infections become more common, which they may very well, I want to have more options, and less toxic options, available. To have more antibiotic options in the future, we need to invest in drug development now.”

DISARM, which was first introduced in the 113th Congress, addresses each of the four “core actions” identified in the November 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that identified antimicrobial resistance as the number one public health threat facing the United States. The CDC estimates more than two million Americans contract an infection resistant to virtually all available treatments and 23,000 die as a result. DISARM responds to these four calls for action with its focus on preventing infections and the spread of resistant bacteria, better tracking of resistance and antibiotic use, improved use of antibiotics, and the development of new antibiotics to treat resistant infections.

The full list of groups supporting DISARM includes: Antimicrobial Innovation Alliance (AIA), American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), Antibiotics Working Group (AWG), California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP), and the UPMC Center for Health Security.