AMR Challenge 2024-25, in collaboration with GAMRIF, announces 9 winners

New Delhi: C-CAMP AMR Challenge 2024-25 supported by GAMRIF, under the aegis of India AMR Innovation Hub has announced 9 winners of its National Call in India. 
The winners shall be supported by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in India in collaboration with the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) to foster the identification and development of world-class AMR-focused innovative solutions to tackle various aspects of AMR in the environment in India and for the benefit of LMICs.
The National Round of C-CAMP AMR Challenge, in collaboration with GAMRIF:
The C-CAMP national AMR Challenge that was launched in Aug, 2024 received about 200 applications from innovators and startups across India for funding and ecosystem support to enable scale up, production, adoption and societal integration of winning solutions to tackle AMR in the environment. 
Prof. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India, remarked, “My heartiest congratulations to the winners of the GAMRIF – C-CAMP AMR Challenge 2024-25. Antimicrobial resistance in the environment is a serious issue because of unchecked effluents from agriculture and industry reaching our water bodies, air and land. The problem has assumed alarming proportions across the entire world.  I am heartened to see that innovators and scientists in India are developing cutting-edge innovations that hold promise not only in India and LMICs but for the world. I also congratulate C-CAMP as India’s leading technology and innovation hub in the life sciences sector to have built the foundations of an AMR in environment pipeline from India.”
Making the winner announcement at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting being held in New Delhi during 25th to 27th April, Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, Director-CEO, C-CAMP said:
“I am delighted to unveil the winners of the inaugural edition of GAMRIF-C-CAMP AMR Challenge 2024-25 in India. We have 9 solutions addressing critical gaps in point-of-care diagnostics and screening for clinically relevant pathogens in runoffs from farms, fisheries and hospitals, treatment of wastewater and industry effluents and air decontamination in hospitals. The first cohort holds great potential for combating AMR through detection and prevention of the buildup of resistant genes in several environmental harbours. We look forward to working with all national and international stakeholders with the guidance of the office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India to provide comprehensive ecosystem support from idea-stage to deployment and implementation of these innovative solutions at the industry, agriculture and public health levels. It is very apt that we are announcing the winners at the WHS Regional Meeting platform where experts, leaders and policymakers from the healthcare domain in the region will convene.”
The winners are:
  1. Foundation for Neglected Diseases Research (FNDR) – A device to deplete antimicrobial residues from wastewater, using a cartridge-based device with a patented mixture of activated charcoal and plant-based materials. 
  2. Biomoneta Research Pvt. Ltd.: qAMI (Quantitative Airborne Microbial Index) – A singular technology combining detection of air-borne total microbial load and pathogenic microbes in hospital set-ups, using AI/ML platform and encompassing different microbial attributes, combined with the classic microbiological approach.
  3. D-NOME Pvt. Ltd. – D-NOME’s pocket PCR device: Rapid and accurate on-field detection and identification of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (ARB) & Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) in aquaculture farms and other wastewater sources.
  4. Vividew Innovations Pvt. Ltd. – A novel innovation to remove residual antibiotics & antibiotic-resistant bacteria from wastewater in hospital sewage treatment plants (STPs). A combination of technologies based on membrane filtration and advanced photo-catalytic oxidation.
  5. Diagopreutic Pvt. Ltd. – Detection of residual antibiotic and pathogen identification in water samples from aquaculture farm effluents, using a colorimetric method, based on the differential nitro-reductase activity of the bacteria and their ability to grow in presence of the specific antibiotic.
  6. Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt. Ltd. – Rapid detection of pathogens from wastewater samples and detection of environment-related ARGs. The technology involves an in-house developed nucleic acid extraction kit and an advance multiplexed quantitative RT-PCR technology, capable of identifying a diverse array of pathogens as well as an extensive spectrum of ARGs.
  7. Huwel Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.: Quantiplus® Environmental Surveillance Kit – Real-Time PCR detection for typhoid and ARGs in environmental samples. The RT-PCR kit detects a wide spectrum of ARGs, as well as the typhoid specific gene along with its resistance genes. 
  8. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeeth – Development of affordable POT (Point of Testing) device for monitoring of AMR in the environment, by an impedance-based microfluidic device, using a lytic phage-based detection technology. The innovation, as proposed by Dr. Bipin Nair and his team, is capable of detecting and identifying various pathogens of clinical relevance and can be used for rapid and accurate detection of specific bacteria. 
  9. Indian Intitute of Science (IISc) – Tackling AMR emergence through effluent treatment using robust catalytic enzyme mimetics​. The MONZymes based technology, as developed by Dr. Subinoy Rana and his team, is capable of effectively degrading residual antibiotics from effluent wastewater and also exhibit antibacterial activity, through advanced (photo)catalytic activity​. 
By 2050, deaths associated with AMR are projected to rise to a staggering 10 million each year worldwide. The impacts of climate change, antimicrobial misuse and overuse across the food and agriculture industries and buildup of antimicrobial pollution in the environment due to effluents and poor waste management practices will be major contributors to this rise in AMR-related deaths. However, solutions to tackle AMR burden in the environment are still limited in number, particularly in the LMICs. 
The GAMRIF-C-CAMP partnership has committed to nurturing and developing LMIC specific contextual solutions to help bend the AMR curve in the environment. With this, C-CAMP joins GAMRIF’s funding portfolio of some of the world’s major AMR stakeholders, such as Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) and Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP).

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