With the publication of the final part of Lord Jim O'Neill's government-backed Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the Longitude Prize can provide the following comment.

The report highlights the transformative potential of rapid diagnostics to help inform antibiotic prescriptions and more effective antibiotic use. The UK’s Longitude Prize – a challenge with a £10m prize fund – is actively seeking novel diagnostics and raising awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance, as quantified by the AMR Review.

Professor Peter Piot, Director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Longitude Prize Advisory Panel Co-Chair comments:

“We welcome this final Report of the AMR Review, and are pleased to see rapid diagnostics as one of the priorities. We hope the Longitude Prize will help to speed up existing and novel work on developing these. The winning diagnostic would require the wide-ranging support the Report calls for, to ensure effective tests are part of the decision making process for antibiotics, and have a real opportunity to improve health outcomes for future generations.”

Information on how to enter the Longitude Prize can be found at longitudeprize.org/

 

ENDS

 

Notes to editors:

Professor Piot is a distinguished expert in microbiology and epidemiology, and has played key roles in understanding some of the deadliest diseases affecting the world today. As well as co-discovering Ebola in 1976, he has made a huge contribution to bringing HIV/ AIDS to the forefront of global agendas; as well as time as President of the International AIDS Society he was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS, and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Video: What is the Longitude Prize?

The Longitude Prize is a £10m fund which aims to conserve antibiotics for future generations and revolutionise global healthcare.  It will reward a competitor that can develop a transformative, point-of-care diagnostic test that will significantly reduce the overuse or misuse of antibiotics.

The Longitude Prize being delivered by Nesta was announced by the Prime Minister at G8 in 2013, and, through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, is being supported by Innovate UK as funding partner.  The Prize commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act (1714) when the British government threw down the gauntlet to solve one of the great scientific challenges of that century: how to pinpoint a ship’s location at sea by its longitude. www.longitudeprize.org