Damiano De Felice, the Italian who fights antibiotic resistance

Every year, beyond one million people around the world lose their lives to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. A higher number than the victims of AIDS and malaria. Italy is among the most affected European countries: 11 thousand deaths per year (National Institute of Health). According to the World Health Organization, Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to global public health. Yet our awareness of all this is very low.

But there’s good news. In Boston, there is an Italian at the center of a revolutionary initiative that wants to provide an answer to this crisis. He is Damiano De Felice, 37 years old, directs external relations and fundraising for CARB-X, non-profit accelerator that has one billion euros for ffund the development of new antibiotics and innovative solutions to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR, antimicrobial resistance).

Roman, researcher, graduate in political science from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, doctorate from the London School of Economics, today his role is to be a bridge between an international network of scientists with very beautiful ideas and those who make decisions and manage funding in governments and foundations.

“CARB-X is funded by the government of 5 G7 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Japan) it’s yes large international private foundations. How does it work? Let’s analyze the most dangerous bacterial infections and the drugs available to understand where the gaps are. We then organize global calls to find and accelerate the development of new products that cover these gaps. We offer the most promising scientists money and advice to bring the product to market.”

The problem of antibiotic resistance is huge. “It has a significant impact on the National Health System, with 2.7 million beds occupied every year to deal with this threat (Source Simit). In economic terms, the direct costs amount to approximately 2.4 billion euros every year.”

The antibiotics they are precious medicines. “We don’t realize what life would be like without antibiotics, there are a thousand things we couldn’t do.” However, they are special medicines. “The more they are used, the more they lose effectiveness. Every time we use an antibiotic, we give the bacteria an opportunity to mutate and become resistant.”

But why do we need a non-profit accelerator to finance the development of new products? “Most pharmaceutical companies are no longer interested in investing in the research and development of new products. New antibiotics are used as a last resort, to preserve their effectiveness. Doctors prescribe them – rightly – only after those already existing on the market have not worked. Which reduces sales volumes compared to other therapeutic areas where new drugs are used on a larger scale, in the largest possible number of patients because there is no risk of it losing effectiveness.”

This is where CARB-X’s work becomes essential. Founded in 2016 by a Boston University law professor, Kevin Outterson, and created by the US government and the Welcome Trust, a philanthropic organization based in London, it grew from there. “We are recognized in the G7 and G20 documents as one of the most important initiatives dealing with this issue and which need more funding. According to a study by the European Commission, the money missing is between 250 and 400 million”.

“To date, CARB-X has accelerated 100 research and development projects, 18 of which have entered or completed first-in-human clinical trials and 2 are already on the market. Our portfolio companies have disclosed 83 inventions.”

37 years old, De Felice graduated in political science at Sant’Anna, did a doctorate at the LSE and worked abroad for years, dealing with relations between large multinational companies and the violation of human rights, in particular access to medicines, in developing countries. After finishing his doctorate, he starts working for an organization called Access to Medicine Foundation, in Amsterdam. “The main work of this Foundation is to produce a report of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world based on what they do to facilitate access to their medicines in emerging countries. It is an influential ranking, published on Financial Times and from New York Times, feared by the CEOs of pharmaceutical giants. I led the strategy of this organization for 8 years. During this time, I started a project on antibiotic resistance and met the founder of Carb-X, who then called me from Boston. Today my job is to ensure that governments and private foundations create a sustainable research and development ecosystem. We are also working with the Italian government, which this year holds the presidency of the G7, and has made AMR one of its priorities”

But much still needs to be done on the topic. “The awareness we have is equal to that we had twenty years ago on climate change. Finding the closure of the circle is not simple. In fact, it is particularly complex…”.

How did you get there? “In life I have had a lot of opportunities. For a series of sliding doors, doors that open and close. The most significant was enter Sant’Anna, a unique place for training also at an international level and for meeting extraordinary classmates and professors. The second, a series of coincidences, so I have never looked for work. After my doctorate, I spoke at a conference where the founder of the Access to Medicine Foundation was in the audience. At the end of my speech he made me a proposal that changed my future. “Do you know more than me about the initiative I founded, will you come to work with us? So with the head of Carb.X, we worked together on a project on the topic of antibiotic resistance and at a certain point he asked me to help him in Boston.”

Difficulties? “I work in a technical field but I’m not a technician. I am a curious researcher, with good interpersonal skills and very attentive to details. But there are many difficulties. You have to speak knowledgeably with people who have priority on 500 tables… And we in no way want the resolution of the antibiotic resistance issue to be at the expense of other health problems. But money is not infinite and it is necessary find ways to have bigger budgets without taking money away from other problems.

Why are you doing it? “Over the last 10 years I have worked a lot in the field of access to medicines in developing countries. There are a lot of countries and a lot of vulnerable people who do not have access to antibiotics. I do it for them, for my children and why children of these people will have antibiotics in the future.

Throughout our lives, we have all gotten them. And if we are here today it is largely thanks to antibiotics. This is why we must protect them. My father is a doctor. He has always inspired me, but I have always said: I will never be a doctor in my life. Yet now I find myself at dinner talking to him about these issues. Mine is a beautiful and exciting job. But I dream of a future where we are no longer needed. And may Italy, my country, contribute to this challenge.”