Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's an honour to address the committee today. I want to compliment the staff and thank the clerk for his graciousness.
Let me start by taking a moment to explain what our organization is about. We were founded in 1981. We are the pioneering organization that first identified antibiotic resistance as a problem and the crisis that I think is broadly recognized today. We were founded as an education and advocacy group that is global in scope. Our mission is to recognize that there should be...to develop new medicines and new rapid diagnostics to detect microbes in the environment.
Let me launch into what the perspectives are internationally. There's an excellent template at the WHO website with a step-by-step guide for developing a national action plan. I won't go through it in any detail, but I commend it to you. All its elements represent our perspectives, which are stewardship, collaboration, the need to develop and innovate new medicines, and diagnostics. But it doesn't address animal food production, nor does it address the secret ingredient that is key to a nation's success in this area, which I will address towards the end of my quick talk here.
Antibiotic stewardship is a systematic effort to educate and persuade prescribers about antimicrobials and follow evidence-based prescribing in order to stem antibiotic overuse and thus antimicrobial resistance. We need to continue developing mechanisms for international communication that may signify new resistance trends with global and animal health implications, which is why our group has established chapters around the world. We've long had those chapters around the world, and they facilitate communications on a regional basis to identify trends in resistance.
Towards the essential goal of encouraging development of new medicines and rapid diagnostics consistent with and as enunciated in the U.S. national action plan, there is the CARB-X global partnership. This is a public-private partnership aimed at funding innovation. CARB-X stands for combatting antibiotic-resistant bacteria biopharmaceutical accelerator. This is a plan for $250 million over five years.
The group is comprised of the Wellcome Trust, the AMR Centre, Boston University law school, the Allergy and Infectious Disease Centre at the NIH, the Broad Institute, and also BARDA, which you may know. They have already amassed a handsome portfolio of early-stage pharmaceutical and biotech companies in just a couple of years of existence.
I want to move on to food and animal production. As you may know, antibiotics for growth promotion in poultry is declining in the U.S. and in Europe to a degree, but the BRIC countries are expected to boost consumption with their burgeoning middle class and their preference for meat in their diets.
Antibiotics-free meat is a result here in the U.S. of consumer demand, but what happens abroad affects all of us. This is a tragedy of the commons. It is a little frightening to think about that. As much as antibiotic use in poultry production is declining here, it's being boosted abroad.
Let me conclude by noting, and this might not sound altogether..., but Portugal was able to achieve near-universal elimination of hepatitis C. The secret ingredient that I mentioned before is something that Canada has. In thinking about the paradox of AMR, antimicrobial resistance, I am reminded that Canada is a leader in social responsibility with its diversity, its intellectual depth, its resources, its scale, and its progressive national health system.
Canada can be the world's model for managing the complex interplay and causes that would otherwise disrupt biodiversity. I think Canada is uniquely positioned to really solve, to stem, antibiotic resistance.
I look forward to your questions. Thank you.