20 August 2025
Com-WATCH and PADs awarded £1 million prize from the Trinity Challenge to tackle dual issues of stock control and substandard and falsified antibiotics
The Trinity Challenge announced today two winning teams from its global innovation competition on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics, aimed at tackling the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
It is estimated that bacterial antibiotic resistance will cause 39 million deaths in the next 25 years. Without action, the majority of deaths will occur within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The projects receiving funds are focused on addressing the issues of antibiotic stock control and of substandard and falsified antibiotics.
The Challenge winners are Com-WATCH, in Nigeria, and PADs, delivering in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi & Namibia. Both projects received a £500,000 award.
People and animals in LMICs lack access to common antibiotics. Of the 7.75 million people who die of bacterial sepsis each year, almost 3 million have infections that could be treated with commonly used oral antibiotics such as penicillin and amoxicillin, which are generally low risk, low cost, and widely available. Lack of access to effective antibiotics causes increased resistance by bacteria to antibiotics (AMR) and deaths in both human and animal populations.
Com-WATCH is an integrated data-driven technology for tracking stock control and identifying substandard and falsified antibiotics in communities in Nigeria. The low-cost, scalable technology will be available to medicine vendors, AgroVets, community health workers and ordinary citizens.
PADs (Paper Analytical Devices Project) is an affordable, rapid screening and reporting solution designed to detect substandard and falsified antibiotics. Using digital technology via a mobile app, the solution enables regulators, pharmacists, veterinarians, and medicine shop owners to test antibiotics in under seven minutes. The solution has already had strong results and this prize will enable expansion with an antibiotic focus in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Namibia.
Both winners of the Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics will also receive ongoing post-award innovation and scaling support as they implement their solutions.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, Executive Chair, the Trinity Challenge and UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance, said: “Our new winners from our third challenge have applied innovative thinking to this complex problem in global health, I applaud their creativity and dedication. They show that everyone can make a difference and be part of the solution to the antibiotic emergency. Their plans to harness the power of new and existing technology and local level data to successfully detect substandard and falsified antibiotics or track stock control within a country will fill knowledge gaps and inform decision-makers.”
When accepting their Grand Prizes during a virtual awards ceremony this afternoon, Dr Yemisi Ogundare (Jhpiego Nigeria), Team Lead for Com-WATCH said: “Our solution gives power back to the community. It allows community members to contribute data that helps public health decision making, allowing us to reduce the issues of antimicrobial resistance and improve the health of vulnerable community members.”
Professor Marya Lieberman (University of Notre Dame), Team Lead for PADs said: “’I’m honoured and really grateful. We have developed a point of use test card that can identify medicines that don’t contain the correct chemicals, or the correct amount, which can interface with stock control technologies. We are interested in building tools that will help people communicate these results across borders, as sharing this information can really increase the impact.”
The Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics has been made possible through a partnership with MIT Solve and funding from the Institute of Philanthropy empowered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Novo Nordisk Foundation and Wellcome.
About Antimicrobial Resistance
Antibiotic resistance (often referred to as antimicrobial resistance or AMR) is a One Health crisis and an increasing threat to our health, food, and environmental security.
There will be millions more deaths from AMR if strategies are not implemented now to counter this threat. The speed at which antibiotic resistance is growing is a direct response to misuse and overuse of antibiotics across our healthcare systems and the food industry. The situation with respect to antibiotic resistance in bacteria has developed to the point that it now threatens our health, food, environment and global security.
About The Trinity Challenge
The Trinity Challenge (TTC) is a charity supporting the creation of data-driven solutions to help protect against global health threats. We believe data and analytics hold the key to building effective, affordable, and scalable solutions to current and future pandemics and health emergencies, and we are committed to working with governments, individuals and organisations across the world, to help improve our resilience against current and future threats to global health.
The Trinity Challenge was launched in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted a global need to be better prepared to tackle healthcare emergencies. The inaugural 2021 Challenge on pandemic preparedness received applications from 340 teams across 60 countries and distributed a prize fund of £5.7 million across eight winning initiatives.
In 2024, the second Trinity Challenge received 285 applications from 57 countries and awarded a total of £2.7 million across four winning teams for its competition on tackling the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In 2025, the third Trinity Challenge received 171 applications from 51 countries around the world and awarded £1 million across two winning teams focused on community access to effective antibiotics.
For further details contact Jennie Smith at [email protected]
