Funding faster diagnostics

Just two weeks after the White House released its National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria on March 27, NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced it is awarding more than $11 million in research grants for nine projects that address one of the plan's top priorities: rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant bacterial infections.

Innovation in diagnostics has not seen the boost that antibiotic therapies have in the wake of the GAIN (Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now) Act of 2012 - a fact that was highlighted at a congressional hearing held last October as part of the 21st Century Cures Initiative. (See "Diagnosing resistance" BioCentury Innovations (Oct. 23, 2014))...