Premier Statement on FDA’s Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Premier and its members applaud Commissioner Gottlieb for making antimicrobial stewardship a central part of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA's) agenda. As a leader in researching, analyzing, developing and implementing measurable antimicrobial stewardship strategies, Premier is committed to reducing preventable harms caused by hospital-acquired infections and inappropriate antimicrobial use. Through an array of data-driven solutions, research and educational services, and performance improvement collaboratives, Premier and its members have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare costs.

Premier has also worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study and publish research on unnecessary antibiotic use in hospitals. Additionally, nearly 1,000 facilities use Premier’s clinical surveillance analytics to monitor and protect patients from infections, harmful drug interactions and other adverse events. These hospitals also report antimicrobial use and resistance data to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). As Commissioner Gottlieb underscored, these efforts are paying off in the form of improved antibiotic stewardship by hospitals.

We believe the federal government can continue to support healthcare providers’ efforts to improve antibiotic use by:

• Using incentives, rather than penalties, to encourage and support healthcare providers to be judicious stewards of antibiotics;
• Investing in research to learn which elements of such programs are most effective;
• Working with the healthcare community to create consistency in the definition of antibiotic use and in prescribing guidelines; and
• Incenting improvements in automated surveillance to enable automatic reporting into NHSN.

We’re also encouraged that the FDA is exploring innovative payment models to advance the development of new antibiotics and appropriate antibiotic use in hospitals. We look forward to continuing to work with the administration on these efforts.

-- Blair Childs, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Premier