A Force to Stop Deadly Bacteria

BU-based CARB-X recently reached a major milestone, funding its 100th project to create new antimicrobials. A nonprofit global partnership, CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) directs funding and expertise to companies and researchers around the world to spur the creation of innovative antibiotics, vaccines, and rapid diagnostics.

“CARB-X has become one of the key global initiatives to save the future of antibiotics,” says Kevin Outterson, CARB-X’s executive director and BU’s Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Law. The partnership is funded by a consortium that includes the US, German, UK, and Canadian governments as well as the global charitable organizations the Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Novo Nordisk Foundation. It also receives in-kind services from the US National Institutes of Health. CARB-X has given out more than $470 million in funding awards, helping push 18 projects into first-in-human clinical trials.

“CARB-X has become one of the key global initiatives to save the future of antibiotics.”

—KEVIN OUTTERSON

When the United Nations General Assembly met in 2024 for a High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance, CARB-X and its success was particularly mentioned in the Political Declaration. Similar statements supporting CARB-X are now commonplace at the G7 as well. “Evolution pushes bacteria to resist antibiotics….” says Outterson. “We can never take our foot off the gas of discovery and development of new products to prevent, diagnose, and treat bacterial infections.”