Are we still discovering new antibiotics?

The rapid spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a worldwide health crisis, with researchers struggling to keep up with the urgent demand for new drugs that can combat seemingly invincible bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 million Americans are infected every year by drug-resistant bacteria, and 23,000 of them die. Yet only two new antibiotics were approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) between 2008 and 2011 [source: Spellberg].

In 2012, the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) released a report on the lack of antibiotic development, describing an almost impossible situation for drug researchers. For one, there’s no money in the antibiotic game, even though new drugs are desperately needed − long-term therapy for chronic conditions is the cash cow. The Office of Health Economics reported that in 2011, a new antibiotic would be worth about $50 million to a pharmaceutical company. A new musculoskeletal drug? $1 billion [source: Towse].

The APUA report also cited the fact that it’s been getting more and more difficult to discover new antibiotics. Because of the resistance problem, the search is more complex, expensive and time-consuming, and it’s just not worth it to drug companies because of the low return on investment. The report also blamed the FDA bureaucracy for creating roadblocks in the drug testing and approval process.

But things are looking up. In 2013 and 2014, there was major news in the antibiotic world [source: Nonejuie]:

Legislative changes are also paving the way for discovery. In 2012, the GAIN (Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now) Act was signed into law. It allows the FDA to fast-track the development, review and trials of new antibiotics that fight resistant pathogens. Thirty-nine new drugs are in development through the GAIN Act [source: Krans]. U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2014 that set up a task force for fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria, calling it an urgent matter of national security.

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