MRL to Establish Network for Tracking Antimicrobial Resistance

MRL Pharmaceutical Services (Herndon, VA), a division of Focus/MRL Inc., has received a seven-year, $3.6 million National Institutes of Health contract to establish a network for tracking the resistance of Staphylococcus aureus (SA), a common cause of bacterial infections that are often life-threatening, to antimicrobial agents. MRL will work with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) to develop and maintain the "Network on Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus," or Narsa.

Narsa is one part of Niaid's aggressive actions to better understand and slow resistance of SA to the drug vancomycin—long considered a powerful weapon against SA infections. But SA strains have been discovered that show intermediate-level resistance to vancomycin. Narsa, therefore, is designed to link investigators—including basic scientists, clinical microbiologists, and clinical investigators—studying microorganisms in the Staphylococcus family.

"By relying on MRL's combined expertise in microbiology and Internet technology, Narsa will provide information and resources that can have a direct and timely impact on monitoring, understanding, and hopefully controlling resistance," said MRL Chief Scientific Officer Daniel F. Sahm. "Linking all Niaid investigators working in this field and supplying them with important information at the same time represents the first widespread initiative of this type to help the entire scientific community find answers."

As the Narsa contractor, MRL will:

• Establish and maintain communication links with all Narsa investigators and the Niaid
• Develop and maintain an Internet website and electronic bulletin board
• Evaluate and compare susceptibility testing methods
• Establish and maintain a registry of cases with documented infections due to SA with intermediate susceptibility and resistance to vancomycin
• Establish and maintain a repository of isolates from these cases for distribution to Narsa investigators
• Confirm the identity and determine the purity of the isolates; grow additional quantities of cultures of important isolates
• Maintain a database and computerized inventory of isolates and conduct analyses of these data
• Collaborate and coordinate with other Niaid components addressing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance
• Establish liaison with other public as well as professional society and industry-supported efforts in this area; and organize annual meetings of all investigators.

MRL has been in the business of diagnosing, tracking, and managing infectious disease information for more than 20 years. In 1993, a new division, MRL Pharmaceutical Services, was formed to provide government, industry, medical, and public health professionals with independent, objective, and reliable information concerning the global occurrence, incidence, and emergence of antimicrobial resistance. MRL successfully merged microbiological expertise and information technology to create an electronic approach to antimicrobial resistance surveillance known as the Surveillance Network Database, that collects antimicrobial susceptibility data daily. More than 200 hospitals and laboratories in the US provide the data, in order to provide high-quality, objective, real-time information that advances the prevention and control of antimicrobial drug resistance. The Surveillance Network Databases are currently under development in Canada, Australia, and Europe; during 1999 and 2000, additional expansion is planned in Asia and Latin America.

Approximately 99% of the total costs of this project will be funded with federal money, and approximately 1% of the total costs of this project will be financed by MRL Pharmaceutical Services, a division of Focus/MRL Inc.

For more information: Daniel F. Sahm, MRL Pharmaceutical Services, Two Fountain Square, 11921 Freedom Drive, Suite 400, Reston, VA 20190-5608. Tel: 703-467-7600. Fax: 703-467-7610.