Antibiotic resistance a global emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the growing resistance to antibiotics is becoming a ‘global emergency’.
A new report from WHO, Antibacterial agents in clinical development – an analysis of the antibacterial clinical development pipeline, including tuberculosis, found a lack of new antibiotic development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. According to the report, most of the antibiotic drugs currently being readied for production are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short-term solutions. As the number of drug-resistant diseases grows, the report found that there are very few treatment options being developed.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency that will seriously jeopardise progress in modern medicine," commented Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO. "There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery.”
WHO has identified 12 classes of priority pathogens – including tuberculosis, pneumonia and even urinary tract infections – that are becoming increasingly harder to treat.
“Pharmaceutical companies and researchers must urgently focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients in a matter of days because we have no line of defence,” said Dr Suzanne Hill, director of the Department of Essential Medicines at WHO.
WHO has set up the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) in order to try and tackle the issue. On 4 September, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Wellcome Trust pledged more than €56 million to the cause.