NEW YORK (360Dx) – Value-Dx, a European project aimed at tackling antimicrobial resistance spearheaded by six in vitro diagnostic firms and 20 non-industry partners, was launched this week.
The launch was announced by the University of Antwerp, BioMérieux, and Wellcome Trust. Value-Dx's focus will be "to transform medical practice to achieve more personalized, evidence-based antibiotic prescription and use in community care settings through the widespread use of clinical and cost-effective innovative strategies," the three partners said in a statement. The European Commission, Wellcome Trust, and private companies are funding Value-Dx with €14 million ($15.7 million) over four years.
Specifically, the initiative will focus on acute respiratory tract infections acquired in community care settings, which the partners said are the "most frequent" reasons for medical visits and inappropriate use of antibiotics. Outcomes from Value-Dx may also have use in other common infections, including urinary tract infections, blood stream infections, and hospital-acquired respiratory tract infections, they added.
"Diagnostics are an essential tool to help us tackle AMR, but in order to realize their full potential, we need to be using them much more widely than we currently are," Tim Jinks, head of the drug resistant infections program at Wellcome Trust, said in the statement. "The Value-Dx project will allow us to develop deep understanding of the economic, regulatory, and policy value determinants of medical diagnostics and help drive the uptake of innovate diagnostic tools into everyday clinical use."