1. ABOUT GARDP FOUNDATION
The Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP Foundation) is a not-for-profit global health organization registered in Geneva, Switzerland. GARDP’s mission is to accelerate the development and access of treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections. It does so by forging public-private partnerships all over the world to develop and expand access to treatments for serious bacterial infections and sepsis in adults, children and newborns, as well as sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

GARDP Foundation responds to the crisis in antimicrobial resistance. In 2015, the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), adopted the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. The following year, to deliver on this plan, WHO and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative created GARDP. In 2018, the GARDP Foundation was legally established as an independent entity.

Since then, GARDP Foundation has developed a portfolio of antibiotic treatments that targets WHO priority pathogens, priority diseases and key populations/regions that are especially affected by drug resistance. It is also pioneering new access initiatives with innovator, manufacturing and distribution partners.

As of 2024, the GARDP team consists of about 100 people who collectively share extensive cross-sector R&D and access experience. They work with the key public and private sector stakeholders and partners, such as the research and development community, donors, industry and implementing countries.

2. PROJECT BACKGROUND & PURPOSE OF THE RFP

1. Background to project
Serious bacterial infections (SBIs) are a major cause of death for people in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and one of the world’s biggest killers, claiming 7.7 million lives each year. SBIs are those caused by harmful bacteria which, if not treated promptly or appropriately, can go on to cause severe illness and potentially life-threatening complications, such as organ failure or sepsis. Over the last century, antibiotics have provided a means of protecting people from SBIs and in doing so have increased life expectancy by an incredible 23 years.
However, in recent decades the rise and spread of drug-resistant infections has started to reverse that trend. This growing resistance to antibiotics, including those kept as a last resort (such as carbapenems), is already leaving clinicians with vanishingly few treatment options. But now, research suggests that this antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis has reached a critical tipping point. With mortality having remained relatively stable in recent decades, the number of AMR-related deaths is now expected to rise sharply, increasing by more than 70% globally by 2050.
One reason for this sudden step change is the proliferation of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Often these pathogens have the ability to not only pass between people or via objects, but also form tough biofilms on hospital equipment, like ventilators and catheters. This can enable them to become entrenched in healthcare settings and make it difficult to prevent their spread. In addition to this, multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections tend to be the most difficult to treat, and also pose greater challenges when it comes to developing new antibiotics.
SBIs can lead to life-threatening complications, such as sepsis. This can occur when an infection triggers an extreme response from the body’s immune system, causing damage to tissues and resulting in multi-organ failure. Sepsis is one of the world’s biggest killers and responsible for one in five deaths worldwide, with the majority of cases caused by SBIs. Drug resistance is also a major factor in determining clinical unresponsiveness to treatment and the rapid evolution to sepsis and septic shock.
GARDP is exploring ways to repurpose old antibiotics for new use. This includes a project aimed at developing a new treatment regimen for sepsis caused by drug-resistant Enterobacterales, which includes a particularly difficult to treat group of bacteria called extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-PE). These are a big problem and a major killer, particularly in LMICs. GARDP’s approach would not only save lives, but would also deliver cost-effective alternative treatments to carbapenem antibiotics, while providing better outcomes for community-acquired sepsis.
GARDP has assessed a number of off-patent antibiotics that have acceptable safety profiles with limited toxicity. The antibiotics identified that met the criteria to be taken forward were amikacin, fosfomycin and flomoxef. Amikacin is globally available, and it is listed in the “Access” group of antibacterials in the WHO essential medicine list (EML). Intravenous fosfomycin is marketed in several countries, including Canada, Thailand, and countries in Europe, and it is listed in the EML as a “Reserve” antibiotic. Flomoxef has a narrower availability, but it is marketed in several countries in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China).
The potential utility of combinations of these three drugs was initially assessed for the treatment of neonatal sepsis through in vitro assessment of their activity and PK and PD interaction using checkerboard assays and HFIM studies. The combination of flomoxef and amikacin achieved a greater magnitude of initial bacterial kill than either drug as monotherapy and inhibited emergence of resistance. Similarly, combinations of fosfomycin and amikacin and of fosfomycin and flomoxef were synergistic in bacterial killing and prevention of resistance. These new combination regimens are under evaluation in an interventional study (ISRCTN48721236) that aims to treat neonatal sepsis empirically.
The utility of the three new combination regimens will be further assessed among adult patients in an interventional trial for the treatment of SBIs. The primary objective of the trial is to generate robust clinical evidence to support positioning and use of the new combination regimens as alternative(s) to carbapenems for the treatment of SBIs due to ESBL-PE.

2. Purpose of RFP
The purpose of this RFP is to find a microbiology laboratory that will complete a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing of third-generation cephalosporin (3GC)-resistant Enterobacterales clinical isolates against a panel of carbapenem-sparing antibiotics.

If you are interested to receive the complete documentation, please read and sign attached confidential framework  and send it to: RFP_Procurement@gardp.org.

Due/closing date: April 13th, 2026