In two recent letters, The Pew Charitable Trusts thanked the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Energy and Commerce Committee for addressing the threat of antibiotic resistance in the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2018, which was introduced in the Senate on May 15 and in the House on July 16.
This legislation reauthorizes the essential work of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which helps to ensure that the U.S. has effective antibiotics to respond to public health emergencies—including chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks—as well as pandemic influenza and emerging infectious diseases such as multidrug-resistant superbugs. Antibiotics are integral to our nation’s defense against these threats.