Taxing broad-spectrum antibiotics could be a strategy to combat antibiotic resistance

University of East AngliaJul 1 2024 Taxing certain antibiotics could help efforts to tackle the escalating threat of antibiotic resistance in humans, according to a new study by the University of East Anglia's Centre for Competition Policy, Loughborough University and E.CA Economics.

The UK government report, published in 2016, recommended testing for pathogens before prescribing and using narrow-spectrum drugs when appropriate, with costly or time-consuming testing leading to overprescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics and contributing to AMR levels. Antibiotic resistance is an important issue and a priority for UK health policy. It's possibly the next ticking time bomb in the healthcare system.

Co-author Prof Farasat Bokhari, previously of UEA's School of Economics and now at Loughborough University It looked at the impact of two types of taxes on different groups of drugs. Firstly, a percentage tax on all antibiotics, all broad-spectrum antibiotics, and specific broad-spectrum antibiotics known to contribute most to antibiotic resistance . Secondly, a fixed amount of tax per unit of the drug.

Lead author Dr Weijie Yan, at E.CA Economics, said: "The consumer welfare loss and overall welfare loss from taxing these antibiotics are significant, however they are relatively small compared to the predicted societal costs of antibiotic resistance in terms of deaths and economic losses.

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