date : 9/12/2018

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Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) has convened the kick-off meeting for AMR Alliance Japan.

Every year, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) kills at least 700,000 people around the world. Antimicrobials may be losing further potency owing to the transmission of drug-resistant microbes from animals to humans. An international and cross-sectoral approach (The One Health Approach) which straddles the human and animal spheres and includes their environment hence becomes essential.

Given such circumstances, the WHO adopted during its May 2015 World Health Assembly the “Global Action Plan on AMR,” based upon which every country will reinforce its native measures against AMR derived from its respective action plans. There have also been initiatives to establish alliances amongst other countries to effectively promote measures against AMR.

In Japan, AMR has become a large challenge in medical facilities, and cases of community-acquired drug-resistant infections have been on the rise as well. In April 2016, the “National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance” was enacted and measures against AMR have been promoted ever since.

Sensing this growing trend of concern about AMR domestically and abroad, HGPI took up the initiative to host three expert meetings on the subject starting 2016, which involved an array of experts with various fields of expertise from the private and public sectors, academia, and civil society. Collaboration amongst such actors should be further deepened so as to constitute a non-partisan platform to guide the promotion of measures against AMR. With a view to including the theme of AMR in the agenda of the coming G20 Osaka summit, the AMR Alliance Japan, acting as such a platform, will be established and will contribute to the advancement of policies and the concrete implementation of measures against AMR.

Following this, the kick-off meeting was convened on Thursday, September 6, as a preparatory roundtable gathering for the scheduled official establishment of the Alliance in November of this year. Experts decided which items of AMR policy-making should be the subjects of discussion at the Alliance, and discussed the necessary measures to further promote policies on AMR and their feasibility.

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Organizer: Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI)

Participants: Policymakers, relevant ministry officials, academic and corporate stakeholders, etc.

Opening (Explanatory introduction)
・Manami Takamatsu (Manager, HGPI)

Opening remarks
・Kiyoshi Kurokawa (Chairman, HGPI)

Keynote speech
・Kazuhiro Tateda (President, The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases/President, The Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology/Professor, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University)

Roundtable discussion on setting the vision for AMR Alliance Japan

Roundtable speakers (titles omitted, in Japanese syllabary order)
・Kyoko Ama (President, Shirou-iryou)

・Norio Ohmagari (Director, AMR Clinical Reference Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine)

・Satoshi Kamayachi (Executive board member, Japan Medical Association)

・Hiroshi Kiyota (Board chairman, Japanese Society of Chemotherapy/Chief & professor, Department of Urology, Katsushika Medical Center, The Jikei University School of Medicine)

・Takeshi Shigihara (Director, International Affairs, Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association)

・Hiromichi Shirasawa (Vice president and executive officer, Head of Japan Development, MSD K.K.)

・Tohru Takashi (Science and technology advisor, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development)

・Kazuhiro Tateda (President, The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases/President, The Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology/Professor, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University)

・Tomohiro Terada (Trustee, The Japanese Society of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring/Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacy, Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital)

・Kazuhiro Hamaji (Business director, Diagnostics Systems, BD Life Sciences)

・Shingo Mizunaga (Leader, Infectious Diseases Project, Business Strategy Office, Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd./Manager, Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Research Laboratories, FUJIFILM Corporation)

・Kuniaki Miyake (Director, Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases Control Division, Health Service Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

・Yuichi Muraki (Representative, Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences/Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacoepidemiology Kyoto Pharmaceutical University)

・Kazuhiko Mori (Councilor for Pharmaceutical Affairs, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Moderator
・Ryoji Noritake (President, HGPI）

Following this kick-off meeting, HGPI will host a global expert meeting to commemorate the founding of AMR Alliance Japan