Published opinion piece: Time to limit antibiotic pollution

In the most recent issue of the Medicine Maker (#0416), there is a short opinion piece by me and Joakim Larsson, in which we argue for that pharmaceutical companies should live up to their ethical responsibilities, and may actually benefit from doing so (1). We were invited to write for the Medicine Maker based on our recent papers on proposed limits for antibiotic discharges into the environment (2) and minimal selective concentrations (3).

We argue that now as PNECs for resistance selection are available, they should be applied in regulatory contexts. The recent O’Neill report on antimicrobial resistance (commissioned by the British Government) specifically highlighted the urgent need for enforceable regulations on antibiotic discharges (4). The concentrations we reported in our Environment International paper (2) can be used by local, national and international authorities to define emission limits for antibiotic-producing factories, but also for pharmaceutical companies to assess and manage risks for resistance selection associated with their own discharges.

The Medicine Maker can be read for free, but requires registration to access its full content. The full opinion piece can be found here.

References

1. Bengtsson-Palme J, Larsson DGJ: Time to limit antibiotic pollution. The Medicine Maker, 0416, 302, 17–18 (2016). [Paper link]
2. Bengtsson-Palme J, Larsson DGJ: Concentrations of antibiotics predicted to select for resistant bacteria: Proposed limits for environmental regulation. Environment International, 86, 140–149 (2016). doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2015.10.015 [Paper link]
3. Lundström S, Östman M, Bengtsson-Palme J, Rutgersson C, Thoudal M, Sircar T, Blanck H, Eriksson KM, Tysklind M, Flach C-F, Larsson DGJ: Minimal selective concentrations of tetracycline in complex aquatic bacterial biofilms. Science of the Total Environment, 553, 587–595 (2016). doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.103 [Paper link]
4. Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Antimicrobials in agriculture and the environment: Reducing unnecessary use and waste (J O’Neill, Ed,) (2015). [Link].