The Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics
The Challenge was a call for innovative, low-cost data and technology solutions in low- and middle-income countries that address antibiotic stock control and substandard and falsified oral antibiotics.
What is the Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics?
The Challenge was a call for data-driven solutions that answered the question:
“How can data and technology improve stock control and/or reduce the use of substandard and falsified oral antibiotics for community use in low-and middle-income countries?”
The Challenge followed the first two Trinity Challenges, which explored how data and analytics could be used to predict, detect, and respond to pandemics, and to mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Funding was available to support the multidisciplinary teams that demonstrated the greatest potential to increase access to effective antibiotics by harnessing the power of data from communities in low- and middle-income communities.
The Challenge had two focus areas:
Stock control
There is a lack of stock control at the sub-national/local level in community settings.
Interruptions may occur anywhere along the continuum from manufacture to dispensing of antibiotics. This can lead to a situation where there is no available supply of a specific antibiotic within the community (a stockout), which may in turn increase the likelihood of substandard antibiotics entering the market.
Substandard and falsified antibiotics
Substandard and falsified antibiotics are estimated to make up 10% of antimicrobials used by humans in LMICs and 6.5% of veterinary medicines.
Substandard antibiotics are authorised medicines that fail to meet either their quality standards, their specifications, or both. Falsified antibiotics deliberately or fraudulently misrepresent their identity, composition, or source.
Winners
Joint Grand Prize (£500,000 each)
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.
Joint Grand Prize (£500,000 each)
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.
The Trinity Challenge Judges
An independent panel of specialist judges representing a diverse set of expertise were responsible for reviewing applications and selecting Finalists and Winners.
Chair
Dr Divleen Jeji
India Lead, Google Health, Google
Prof Diane Ashiru-Oredope
Lead Pharmacist, AMR and Co-Lead AMR PROGRESS Team, UK Health Security Agency
Prof Christopher Butler
Professor of Primary Care, Clinical Director, University of Oxford Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit
Dr Céline Caillet
Deputy Head, Medicine Quality Research Group, University of Oxford
Prof Otto Cars
Professor, Infectious Diseases, Uppsala University
Dr Anna Farra
Coordinator of the Middle East Medical Unit, Antimicrobial Stewardship Referent, Médecins Sans Frontières OCB
Prof Ana Gales
Professor, Infectious Diseases, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Amit Khurana
Director, Sustainable Food Systems, Centre for Science and Environment
Prof Patricia Kingori
Professor, University of Oxford
Dr Toby Leslie
Global Technical Lead, Fleming Fund / Mott MacDonald
Dr Jane Lwoyero
Technical Officer, AMR and Food Safety, World Organisation for Animal Health
Winnie Nambatya
Lecturer of Clinical Pharmacy, Makerere University
Dr Megan Neary
Senior Research Manager for Therapeutics, Wellcome Trust
Dr Nhu Nguyen
Program Director, Epidemic Preparedness & Response, and Malaria Control, PATH
Prof Natalie Schellack
Professor of Pharmacology, University of Pretoria
Prof H. Rogier van Doorn
Director, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit – Hanoi, University of Oxford
Erick Venant
Founder, Roll Back Antimicrobial Resistance Initiative
Dr Evelyn Wesangula
Senior Antimicrobial Resistance Control Specialist, East Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA- HC)
Dr Simone Weyand
Independent Scientist, University of Cambridge
Dr Hala Zaid, MD
Regional Director, MENA, Access Health International
Our Challenge Members
The Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics was supported by some of the world’s leading private, academic, and civil society sector organisations. To see our current and former Members, visit our Members page.