From Our CEO
Dear Friends,
Drug-resistant infection is a growing threat to health and lives around the world. One way to address this growing, silent pandemic is to share surveillance data among the scientific community. In June 2022, Vivli launched the AMR (antimicrobial resistance) Register to accomplish just this, making it possible for biopharmaceutical companies to share data on infection-causing pathogens for the first time on an online platform.
We were delighted to launch with the support of 7 industry partners, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Paratek, Pfizer, Shionogi and Venatorx, sharing datasets from their surveillance programs. The high-quality data offered from these programs was requested by researchers through the AMR Register 39 times in the first year. Many of these unique data have never been shared before.
To encourage further data re-use, we launched the Vivli AMR Surveillance Open Data Re-use Data Challenge, funded by Wellcome, in April 2023. Finalists were announced in the Fall, with the winners receiving monetary awards and expenses to travel to ECCMID 2024, if their research abstract is accepted for presentation.
We look forward to the Register’s second year, with the hope of encouraging more researchers to undertake critical research ventures, including tracking trends in multi-drug resistance over time, predicting future resistance patterns, and informing antibiotic stewardship initiatives.
REBECCA LI,
CEO, VIVLI
2023 Milestones
Numbers at a Glance
Datasets in the Register
Industry Data Contributors
AMR Partner Perspectives
“Making relevant data openly accessible can accelerate research and the development of strategies to combat AMR. GSK is in the forefront of developing prevention and treatment options to focus on pathogens that have a high probability of developing AMR. We are pleased to join hands with Vivli to make our multi-country Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (SOAR) surveillance data accessible to researchers, public health agencies, and other stakeholders with the overall aim to combat AMR.”
Anand Manoharan
Scientific and Antibiotic Susceptibility Program Lead,
Infectious Diseases Medical & Scientific Affairs, GSK
“As a private, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on improving health outcomes for patients with drug-resistant bacterial infections, Venatorx Pharmaceuticals is greatly encouraged that 33 research teams have already used its global surveillance data in their projects, and commends the Vivli AMR Register team for advancing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research globally.”
Greg Moeck
Vice President, Microbiology at Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2023 Highlights
AMR Data Challenge
The AMR Data Challenge launched in April 2023 with three aims:
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ENGAGE researchers and the scientific community globally to access and utilize the Vivli AMR Register and participate in the longer-term sustainability of the platform |
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GENERATE new insights or applications in AMR through access and re-use of AMR surveillance data |
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PROMOTE the AMR Register to encourage more industry partners to share surveillance data through the platform when they see the data having a real impact |
The Challenge was well-received, resulting in:
AMR Data Challenge Winners
“Our team feels incredibly privileged to have participated in such a meaningful data challenge. Winning the grand prize not only fills us with a profound sense of fulfilment but also ignites a stronger motivation within us to continue seeking solutions for global issues, especially in combating antimicrobial resistance,” he said. “We are deeply grateful to Vivli for providing a platform that facilitates data accessibility. This is particularly significant for scientists like us hailing from the Global South, where opportunities like these are often scarce.”
Fred Mutisya – Grand Prize winner
Ministry of Health, Narok County, Kenya
“We’re delighted to win this prize – the real win would be if our findings help change policy so that we gain a global understanding of what constitutes antibiotic resistance in clinic which would mean we can progress efforts to reduce resistance more effectively.”
Emily Wood – Innovation Award winner
University of Exeter, UK
“Robust global surveillance is essential to tackle AMR. Through our submission to the Data Challenge, we aimed to demonstrate the need for greater availability of open-access datasets and improved descriptions of surveillance methodologies. We also believe cross-datasets comparisons are key to understand potential sources of heterogeneity in resistance rates.”
Quentin Leclerc – Impact Award winner
Institut Pasteur, France
“This data challenge was truly an enriching experience for us. It made us push the boundaries of our thinking, it made us work together as a team and it encouraged us to try novel approaches towards data analysis.”
Shraddha Karve
Ashoka University, India
Innovation Award winner
“We are thrilled to be recognized for our work using this amazing resource in the Vivli AMR Data Challenge. This impact represents our efforts to shine a light on the under-appreciated problem of AMR in children. We hope this recognition and our created platform build momentum for advocacy and equitable solutions.”
Yanhong Jessika Hu
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia