The Guardian view on antibiotics: recent breakthroughs are great news, but humanity is losing the bigger race
Our magic bullets are increasingly rare and ineffective. The golden age of discovery is over and the way we develop and use drugs needs to change
TL;DR
- Finding new antibiotics is difficult, with few approvals since 2017.
- Developing antibiotics is a slow and unprofitable business for pharmaceutical companies.
- Two new antibiotics for gonorrhea have been approved by the FDA.
- Zoliflodacin, one of the new drugs, was developed through a partnership between GARDP and Innoviva.
- Innovative models like GARDP funding and the UK's subscription model are crucial for incentivizing research.
- The effectiveness of new antibiotics is threatened by inevitable future resistance.
- Rational use and rationing of antibiotics are necessary but difficult to implement globally.
- Traditional methods of finding antibiotics from natural sources have diminishing returns.
- AI and synthetic drug development show potential but face hurdles.
- Future breakthroughs in antibiotics are expected to be less significant than in the 20th century.