Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to develop future antimicrobial treatments for cystic fibrosis infections.

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Since 2015, NIHR has committed over £3.7 million of research programme funding into developing and improving cystic fibrosis treatments. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the development of antimicrobial treatments for cystic fibrosis.

The Government also funded Medicines Discovery Catapult has joined forces with Cystic Fibrosis Trust to form the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Syndicate in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The Cystic Fibrosis Antimicrobial Resistance Syndicate aims to address unmet patient needs by linking people with cystic fibrosis with leading experts across industry, academia and the National Health Service. Together, this cross-sector consortium is identifying and tackling drug discovery hurdles to accelerate the development of cystic fibrosis antimicrobials and infection diagnostics.