Big pharma failing to invest in new antibiotics, says WHO

[Northerner]

Big pharma continues to walk away from investment in new antibiotics and there are alarmingly few useful new drugs in the pipeline to deal with the worsening crisis of antibiotic resistance, according to the World Health Organization.

Two reports paint a bleak picture. Efforts to discover new antibiotics are “insufficient to tackle the challenge of increasing emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance”, says a review of clinical development.

Most antibiotics being developed are hardly any improvement on existing drugs.

The limited research that is being undertaken is generally by small or medium-sized companies, “with large pharmaceutical companies continuing to exit the field”.
There have been only eight new antibacterial agents approved since 1 July 2017, but overall, says the report, “they have limited clinical benefits”. There has been one important success story – pretomanid has been approved for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. But it was developed not by a pharmaceutical company but by the not-for-profit TB Alliance.

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...failing-to-invest-in-new-antibiotics-says-who

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi Northerner, While this is important it is hardly news. Because anti-biotics lose effectiveness with widespread use, then unfortunately what is required is more 'last resort' anti-biotics.
This means that any Pharma company producing a good new anti-biotic would get pathetically small sales (if it was managed properly.
This in turn means that it isn't in Pharma's economic interest to conduct expensive research and subsequent extensive testing into new anti-biotics.
So the capitalist economic model currently ensures our destruction- but probably too late to much help the planet as a whole.

Fortunately I have no children/grandchildren to worry about.

 

[mikeyB]

Bacteriophages are the way forward, viruses that kill bacteria or prevent reproduction, or remove resistance to antibiotics.

 

[Northerner]

Bacteriophages are the way forward, viruses that kill bacteria or prevent reproduction, or remove resistance to antibiotics.

Indeed - I saw a report on TV once where they are using these and have been doing for some time (in Russia, I think, can't remember, off to look it up 🙂 )

Found it, it was Georgia, although also used throughout Eastern Europe:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p046hptp