PACE partners with Edge Health to bring health economics into early-stage AMR diagnostic development

Edge Health is pleased to be partnering with PACE to help antimicrobial resistance diagnostic innovators understand, evidence and communicate the value of their technologies earlier in development.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most urgent challenges facing health systems globally. Diagnostics that support faster, more targeted treatment could reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, lower avoidable costs, and improve patient outcomes. But for early-stage innovators, demonstrating the value of a diagnostic can be difficult, particularly when that value depends on how the technology fits into different clinical pathways, geographies, payer environments and healthcare settings.

Through our partnership with PACE, we will develop health economic tools and analysis tailored to novel AMR diagnostics. The work will help innovators understand where their technologies could have the greatest impact, how they may influence clinical decisions, and what evidence is needed to support adoption, reimbursement and scale.

Bringing health economics earlier into product development

Health economic evaluation is often considered late in the development pathway, once key decisions about product design, target markets and evidence generation have already been made. At that stage, changing direction can be difficult, costly and slow.

This partnership is designed to bring economic thinking into the process much earlier. By making health economic insight accessible to early-stage teams, the work will support better decisions about product positioning, priority markets and evidence requirements.

We will work with PACE’s diagnostics portfolio to deliver three core areas of support:

• Care pathway analysis across urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections and respiratory tract infections, covering the UK, US, EU and lower- and middle-income countries.
• A structured economic modelling tool that allows teams to test scenarios using realistic pathway and adoption assumptions.
• Bespoke value propositions for each PACE diagnostics project, grounded in their specific performance data, indication and target market.

The care pathway analyses and modelling tool will be made open access, so that the wider AMR diagnostics community can benefit from the outputs.

Supporting innovators to evidence real-world value

The potential impact of AMR diagnostics is highly context dependent. A test that changes prescribing decisions in one pathway may have a different value case in another. Adoption also depends on practical considerations such as workflow, costs, clinical decision points, payer priorities and health system incentives. Our role will be to translate this complexity into clear, credible and usable analysis. The tools developed through the partnership will help innovators articulate how their diagnostics could improve care, reduce inappropriate antibiotic use and support more sustainable health systems.

Pete Coombs, Programme Director (Interim) and Scientific Lead at PACE, said:

“Diagnostic innovations for AMR will only succeed if they can clearly demonstrate value in real-world settings. PACE’s exciting new partnership with Edge Health will give innovators access to a package of support that will help them demonstrate and maximise the value of their product in different infections and settings. Importantly, it will enable them to understand how their technologies can be better integrated into existing care pathways, while also evidencing their broader impact, such as reducing inappropriate antibiotic use. Ultimately, the goal remains to deliver better patient outcomes globally by supporting innovations that are designed with the future in mind and aligned with health systems, payer requirements, and evolving policy and reimbursement frameworks.”

George Batchelor, Chief Executive Officer and Director at Edge Health, said:

“We’re pleased to be working with PACE to bring health economic evaluation into the earlier stages of AMR diagnostic development. This is where health economics can add real value: helping innovators understand how their technologies could work in real-world pathways, what evidence they need, and how to build a credible case for adoption. AMR is a defining global health challenge, and we’re proud to support work that could help promising diagnostics reach patients and health systems more effectively.”

About PACE

PACE, Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy, was founded in 2023 by LifeArc, Medicines Discovery Catapult and Innovate UK, with a £30 million programme of funding and support deployed over five years. PACE works to remove barriers in the antimicrobial resistance research and development ecosystem, supporting innovators with funding, expertise, tools and networks.