DETERMINANT led by ANTABIO

A French integrated solution to combat antimicrobial resistance in hospitals

What is at stake

Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health issue, responsible for 35,000 deaths per year in Europe. Multidrug-resistant hospital-acquired infections affect particularly vulnerable patients and undermine essential aspects of modern medicine, particularly in intensive care and critical care. In this context, developing more effective therapeutic and diagnostic solutions is a health priority. To address this challenge, Antabio, a French biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative treatments against multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, is coordinating the DETERMINANT project alongside bioMérieux and Toulouse School of Economics.

The project

DETERMINANT (Diagnostics, Therapies, and Economic Incentives for Antimicrobial Resistance) is developing an integrated solution that combines a new antibiotic, a precision diagnostic test, and a health economic approach designed to ensure market access and the sustainability of the model.

The consortium brings together three complementary French partners: Antabio, the project leader and developer of MEM-PIL; bioMérieux, responsible for developing the associated ETEST test; and the Toulouse School of Economics, which is leading the economic modeling and valuation work. This complementarity allows the scientific, clinical, diagnostic, industrial, and economic dimensions of the project to be addressed collectively.

The ambition

The project is based on three complementary components: the MEM-PIL product, a combination of a hospital-grade antibiotic, meropenem, and an innovative resistance inhibitor, pilabactam, for the treatment of severe nosocomial infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli; the MEM-PIL ETEST, a susceptibility test that accurately measures MEM-PIL’s activity against clinical strains; and an economic model designed to demonstrate the value of these two solutions and prepare the groundwork for their market entry.

Project Innovations

DETERMINANT offers a distinctive therapeutic innovation. MEM-PIL is designed to provide broad-spectrum coverage against several priority pathogens, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with a treatment approach tailored to either targeted or probabilistic therapy, depending on the clinical context.

The project also includes the development of an ETEST MEM-PIL diagnostic test, designed to provide a quantitative measurement of the MIC and enable more appropriate prescribing of MEM-PIL, under conditions compatible with routine microbiology laboratory practices.

Finally, DETERMINANT incorporates a health economic innovation aimed at assessing the cost of inaction in the face of resistant nosocomial infections, analyzing mechanisms to support innovation, and proposing models that reconcile the appropriate use and economic viability of MEM-PIL and the associated ETEST.

A consortium dedicated to health sovereignty

By combining therapy, diagnostics, and health economics, DETERMINANT helps strengthen France’s health and technological sovereignty in the field of antibiotic resistance and build an integrated response to a major public health challenge. IDCluster supports this initiative by acting as a project accelerator, helping to structure the project, mitigate risks, and facilitate its transition to industrial-scale production.