Why do we need new antibiotics?

An antibiotic is therapeutic agent used to treat bacterial infections. Antibiotics have revolutionised medicine in the 20th century. Alexander Fleming discovered modern day penicillin in 1928 and synthetic analogues are still widely used today although many types of bacteria have developed resistance following extensive use. This has become a familiar refrain with resistance to every class of antibiotic now reported.

The World Health Organization have classified antimicrobial resistance as a "serious threat [that] is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country".PDF. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance reports drug resistant infections are already on the rise with numbers suggesting that up to 50,000 lives are lost each year to antibiotic-resistant infections in Europe and the US alone. They estimate that by 2050 10 million lives a year will be at risk.

Antibiotics are a special category of antimicrobial drugs that underpin modern medicine as we know it: if they lose their effectiveness, key medical procedures (such as gut surgery, caesarean sections, joint replacements, and treatments that depress the immune system, such as chemotherapy for cancer) could become too dangerous to perform.

Relevance to the UN's Strategic 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The open source development of new, affordable antibiotics is key to the delivery of the UN's agenda for sustainable development, specifically:

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

3.3 By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.

3.b Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all

Public Information Resources

The truth about Antibiotics

Wild alligators and a sewage works are just two of the places Angela Rippon discovers that scientists are looking for new ways to fight bacterial infections. Angela reveals how a growing number of bacterial diseases are becoming resistant to the antibiotics currently in use. If nothing is done, millions could die. BBC iPlayer

Public Health England antibiotic resistance appeal

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, comes together with Dr Hilary Jones, Dr Rosemary Leonard, Dr Sarah Jarvis, Dr Ellie Cannon and Dr Carol Cooper to explain the consequences of a world without effective antibiotics YouTube Video

What causes antibiotic resistance? (a 5 min explanation) TED Talk on YouTube Video

We ignore the disaster in the antibiotics market at our peril

There is no viable path for new drugs, however valuable they are to society. Link