Increased antibiotic R&D to combat 'superbugs'
(R&D) must be reinvigorated so doctors have access to medicines
needed to combat the ever-growing threat of antibiotic resistant
infections.
That is the key message of a report to be presented to the US Congress and federal policymakers which details the growing number of microorganisms resistant to drug therapy and the re-emergence of previously deadly infectious diseases hastens the need for new antimicrobials.
This year, nearly 2 million people in the United States will acquire bacterial infections while in the hospital, and about 90,000 of them will die, according to estimates from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 70 per cent of the bacteria that cause these infections will be resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used to fight them. Even more alarming, resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are beginning to strike healthy people outside of hospitals.
Joseph R. Dalovisio, IDSA president said: "There simply aren't enough new drugs in the pharmaceutical pipeline to keep pace with the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria, the so-called 'superbugs'"
"This crisis has the potential to touch us all because drug-resistant infections can strike anyone-young or old, healthy or chronically ill."
A recent analysis found only five new antibiotics in the R&D pipeline out of more than 506 drugs in development. Since 1998, only 10 new antibiotics have been approved, and only two of those are truly novel (having a new target of action, with no cross-resistance with other antibiotics). In 2002, among 89 new medicines emerging on the market, none was an antibiotic.
The report, produced by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), proposes establishing an independent commission to prioritise antimicrobial discovery using legislative incentives and administrative solutions. The report also recommended companies that received approval for an antibiotic could extend the exclusivity period of another FDA-approved drug as long as a portion of the profits derived during the extension period was put back into antibiotic R&D.
Other measures included providing tax incentives for R&D of priority antibiotics and establishing liability protections similar to those that exist for childhood vaccines.
