The Economist: Antimicrobial Resistance Summit 2020

In 2019, The Economist held its inaugural Antimicrobial resistance summit. Bringing together policymakers, pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers and NGOs, the event made a compelling case for increasing both financial investment and policy attention to AMR to avoid a future public health crisis.

This year the goal is to expand the community of discussants, to include a greater focus on environment, food and agriculture, which are underappreciated domains of AMR. The potential of AI and machine learning for improving surveillance, and ways to develop economic impact data that can galvanise policy makers, will also be explored. The conference will provide an opportunity to evaluate progress since 2019, such as new government AMR action plans and the experiences to date of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ mechanisms to incite R&D. In the food and environment domain, the summit will look at concrete ways to reduce antibiotics in crops and livestock and explore the emergence of antimicrobial resistance genes in the food system.