Availability of antibiotics - Reporting of Government commission

Antibiotic resistance is a major and increasing problem, both globally and in Sweden. Antibiotics can be considered as a finite resource and few new antibiotic classes are being developed.

In collaboration with the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV), the Public Health Agency of Sweden has been commissioned by the Government to propose one or several models for making available both new antibiotics and old antibiotics where national availability is insufficient. Taking in to consideration that the suggested models should also minimises the risk of resistance development while enabling the best possible care for patients with infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria.

We have focused on both new and old antibiotics of special medical value, where the national availability risks being insufficient. Suggested models are for example models for economic compensation, identification of antibiotics or storage and distribution methods.

The commission was reported to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs on 1 December 2017.

This report is a short summary of four in-depth interim reports which are published in Swedish: