Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what role he plans for the UK in discussing antimicrobial resistance at the G20 summit in September 2016.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is growing, presenting huge costs to both society and the global economy – it is estimated that AMR will have a cumulative cost of $100 trillion by 2050. One of the main issues driving the increase in AMR is a market failure preventing enough new antibiotic drugs from getting to market. The United Kingdom sees the G20 as the best forum to discuss this economic issue and take action. The UK is calling for the G20 to look at how it can put in place innovative financing mechanisms to reinvigorate the antimicrobial development pipeline and help rectify this market failure.