Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are on track to kill more people than cancer, the UK’s chief financial minister will warn Thursday.By 2050, Chancellor George Osborne will say, antimicrobial resistance could claim the lives of as many as 10 million people a year globally unless global action is taken. By comparison, the World Heath Organization (WHO) estimates that 8.2 million people die each year from cancer.
The message that Osborne is set to deliver in Washington, D.C. to delegates at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting will focus on the economic costs of the problem as well.
“My message here at the IMF meeting in Washington is that we need the world’s governments and industry leaders to work together in radical new ways,” a press statement reports him as saying.
“We have to dramatically shift incentives for pharmaceutical companies and others to create a long-term solution to this problem, with new rewards, funded globally, that support the development of new antibiotics and ensure access to antibiotics in the developing world.