Concern is growing among physicians and scientists about the fact that the rate of discovery of new antibiotics does not keep pace with the increasing risk of bacteria developing resistance to the currently available antibiotics. According to the annual report issued by the World Health Organization, which is concerned with the follow-up of antibiotics that are under study and development, there are currently not enough antibiotics in the development stages that can meet future global needs.
Since 2017, only 12 antibiotics have received final approval for medical use, 10 of them mainly belonging to ancient and well-known chemical groups against which bacteria have already developed resistance.
This means that there is a clear deficiency in the rates of discovery of new antibiotics, especially those that rely on innovative methods and mechanisms to kill bacteria. This poses a huge challenge to efforts to confront the escalating epidemic of infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and makes us all vulnerable to serious complications when infection, even if it is a simple infection.
Currently, 30% of newborns with septicemia die, as a result of infection with bacteria that are resistant to the first choice of treatment, from the available antibiotics. This dangerous situation resulted from several reasons that hinder efforts to develop new types of antibiotics, including the very long time it takes to obtain the final permit from government and scientific agencies and approval for human use, in addition to the high cost of the entire process, and the high failure rate. Currently, it takes 10 to 15 years to obtain approval to move from laboratory studies to clinical studies.
In terms of failure rate, one antibiotic out of every 15 antibiotics derived from chemical groups that are already known, succeeds in reaching the stage of medical use. And if the antibiotic belongs to a previously unknown chemical group, then one antibiotic out of every 30 succeeds in moving from the stage of experiments and studies to the stage of practical use. Unfortunately, the current trials and studies on developing antibiotics lack sufficient creativity and innovation, or research to explore new types and methods of treatment.
To make the situation worse, what is discovered and passed on to medical use, bacteria can develop resistance against it, within two to three years on average. This is in addition to the fact that the bulk of the development of innovative and creative methods and strategies falls on the shoulders of medium and small-sized companies, which suffer from a lack of funding, due to the capital’s fear of investing in this field despite its importance, as a result of the large failure rate, and the weak expected return.
* A writer specializing in scientific and medical affairs.
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