Anne Kasmar, MD, MSc, highlighted how AMR innovation relies on immune-based science, novel modalities, and strong regulatory collaboration at IDWeek 2025.
At IDWeek 2025 in Atlanta, Anne Kasmar, MD, MSc, senior vice president and global franchise head of Immunology & Infectious Diseases at Parexel, discussed how global collaboration, regulatory partnerships, and immune-based science are driving the next frontier in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) innovation. Her session, “Bridging Science and Strategy: Advancing Innovation in AMR Development,” highlighted the rapidly evolving landscape of antimicrobial research and the shared responsibility required to combat resistance worldwide.
“The field is gaining momentum and really thinking comprehensively about antimicrobial resistance and all of the different tools in the toolkit and skills required to address it,” she said. She referenced the recent UN General Assembly high-level meeting on AMR, which emphasized the need for collective action, recalling its message: “‘It’s got to be all of us in it to end it.’”
Key AMR themes Kasmar emphasized:
“We have core expertise at Parexel in antimicrobial development, both in direct-acting antimicrobials, monoclonals, vaccines, and novel modalities like bacteriophage and microbiome,” Kasmar noted. “It’s an area of real importance, where there are products in development, where there are new modalities, and we have active experience in that space.”
Kasmar drew parallels between the pace of regulatory innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic and current needs in AMR development. “Vaccines for AMR again require strong regulatory partnerships,” she explained. “Some of these interventions are first-in-class, like bacteriophage, which will require extremely close partnership with regulators to know how to test it and what definitive evidence looks like.”
Her long-standing background in infectious diseases and immunology informs her belief that many solutions lie in understanding immune mechanisms. “Whether it’s discoveries about the microbiome… or how the microbiome conditions our immune response, trains, and educates our immune system, I think the scientific frontier for ID will largely be immune-based,” Kasmar said.
Kasmar concluded that the path forward requires innovation and openness across the field. “Direct-acting antimicrobials are critically important—they have an essential role—but there’s a lot more to do beyond them,” she said. “There’s just a lot of innovation and 21st-century mindset that needs to come into ID.”
Reference:
Bridging Science and Strategy: Advancing Innovation in AMR Development. Session. Presented at: IDWeek, October 19-22, 2025. Atlanta, Georgia.
