Bacteria spark infection. Antibiotic kills most bacteria. Remaining bacteria evolve resistance. Second antibiotic wipes out all bacteria. Repeat. Repeat until, that is, there are no effective antibiotics, a scenario that looks increasingly likely, according to recent research from the Center for Molecular Discovery at Yale University led by Michael Kinch, PhD. Kinch now leads the Center for Research Innovation in Business at Washington University in St. Louis, which featured his work in a recent article:
The number of antibiotics available for clinical use, Kinch said, has declined to 96 from a peak of 113 in 2000. The rate of withdrawals is double the rate of new introductions, Kinch said. Antibiotics are being withdrawn because they don't work anymore, because they're too toxic, or because they've been replaced by new versions of the same drug. Introductions are declining because pharmaceutical companies are leaving the business of antibiotic use discovery and development.
Many of the major players like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb are no longer developing antibiotics, Kinch wrote in a recent article in Drug Discovery Today. In part, their disinterest is driven by a tight profit window. The drug approval process takes about 11 years, but a patent only provides 20 years of protection, leaving just nine years to recoup development costs, according to Kinch.
As outlined in the Washington University piece, at least two major initiatives are working to reverse this trend. The Infectious Diseases Society of America introduced the 10 x '20 Initiative to spur efforts to create 10 new antibiotics by 2010. And Britain is sponsoring the Longitude Prize 2014, a £10 million award for a simple test that will quickly determine the type of bacteria causing an infection and therefore the most effective antibiotic.
Previously: Healthy gut bacteria help chicken producers avoid antibiotics, Free online course aims to education about "pressing public health threat" of antibiotic resistance and Side effects of long-term antibiotic use linked to oxidative stress
Photo by CDC Public Health Image Library
