34 European academic partners and 5 pharmaceutical companies are launching a new project, COMBACTE-MAGNET, under the IMI AMR research programme New Drugs 4 Bad Bugs (ND4BB). ND4BB has been launched to stimulate antibiotic development in Europe. COMBACTE-MAGNET (Combating Bacterial Resistance in Europe – Molecules against Gram-Negative Infections) will bring highly innovative studies and activities related to prevention and treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB).

UMC Utrecht is the project’s managing entity of the project that counts

with the collaboration of Miquel Pujol research group in epidemiology of bacterial infections IDIBELL and the University Hospital of Bellvitge.

The COMBACTE-MAGNET project will investigate a new approach for preventing respiratory infections in ICU patients and new treatment options for patients with life-threatening infections due to MDR-GNB.

COMBACTE-MAGNET will closely collaborate with and further strengthen the clinical and laboratory networks of COMBACTE, the first project within the ND4BB programme that started in January 2013. Furthermore, a pan-European collaboration will be created (called EPI-Net) within COMBACTE-MAGNET to map and utilize available surveillance systems in Europe in order to optimally describe the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance and healthcare associated infections.