The 2nd Annual meeting for the Cross-IMI AMR Accelerator community was held online on 28 September 2021 and brought together >160 members of the 8 AMR Accelerator projects.

After an introduction by COMBINE, a round of project updates was organised with an official introduction of the newest project, UNITE4TB. Martin Boeree, UNITE4TB Project Coordinator, presented the project partners and objectives of the project, and explained the unique concept behind the UNITE4TB project: the integration of the most innovative TB compounds into new treatment regimens leading to state-of-the-art adaptive trial designs with conventional and new biomarkers of treatment success.

After all projects presented their current state of play, focussing on one major achievement and one major challenge encountered in the past year, participants joined four breakout discussion groups:

– Effective administrative management of IMI2 projects
– Conduct of clinical trials in a global pandemic – sharing experience and learnings
– Data management – experience, learnings and tips
– The value of hollow fiber analysis and other dynamic models in AMR drug development

All groups were moderated by a representative from COMBINE and featured a panel of experts from the AMR Accelerator who expressed their views and opinions on the topics in question.

Finally, Lindsay McKenna, TB Project Co-Director, Treatment Action Group, gave a crash course on community engagement in research, with a particular focus on TB research. This keynote presentation was followed by a Q&A with the audience, and one of the main questions was how the TB-focussed projects of the AMR Accelerator could benefit from the advisory capacity of the Global TB Community Advisory Board. Potential links between the Global TB CAB and AMR Accelerator projects will be explored.

The agenda of the 2nd IMI AMR Accelerator Annual Meeting can be found here.