“The Obama administration wants to double the amount of federal funding dedicated to combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” says the Washington Post, based on comments from White House officials in advance of the fiscal 2016 budget request. “The funding would be used to speed development of antibiotics and diagnostic tools, improve surveillance for “superbugs,” and better prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes in hospitals and other health-care settings.” Last fall, the administration set a five-year plan to reduce antibiotic resistance, which could jeopardize health care. The FDA started a phase-out of the use of medically important antibiotics as growth promotants in food animals.
The Post said $650 million of the funds to be requested by Obama would go to development of new antibacterial drugs and diagnostics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get more than $280 million to discourage over-prescription of antibiotics and to track outbreaks of resistant bacteria. USDA would receive $77 million to develop alternatives to antibiotics used in livestock and FDA would get $47 million to evaluate new drugs and monitor use of antibiotics in livestock, said the newspaper.