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by midas007 4426 days ago
Exactly. But because of the difficulty, time and capital requirements, this is something that can't be left to the market economics. It will be too late by the time we need them because of the years it takes to develop a single new drug. This is a "going to the moon" type thing that needs to happen if we intend to survive. Because that's what's at stake.
2 comments
refurb 4426 days ago
Two comments:

(1) You say it can't be left up to market economics, but two of the big hurdles to new antibiotic development are government regulations: (I) In the past the FDA was not very responsive to the resistance problem, if you had a new drug, you went through a normal review; luckily they have changed their approach recently (II) The way that Medicare and Medicaid pays for antibiotics doesn't encourage investment in novel agents

(2) I have to push back on the "going to the moon" type thing. This is more like we've already been to the moon and we need to go back and do something different. Drug companies know how to develop new antibiotics (not to say it's easy, but they have ideas) and they know how to get them approved. There are new discoveries all the time. We just need to create an ecosystem that encourages further investment.

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midas007 4426 days ago
Edge cases. The big picture is that it's not happening fast enough, which is why the government will need to step in and will need to assume a leadership role to push hard on this.
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refurb 4425 days ago
That's not going to happen. The gov't will change the regulatory and reimbursement environment but the heavy lifting will be done by academic and pharmaceutical researchers.
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alexeisadeski3 4426 days ago
>But because of the difficulty, time and capital requirements, this is something that can't be left to the market economics. It will be too late by the time we need them because of the years it takes to develop a single new drug.

Isn't this exactly what people used to say about the food supply?

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midas007 4426 days ago
Nope. It is what it is: capital-intensive research that is hard and it takes a long time to come up with a molecule that will stop an infection without killing or disabling the patient. That can't be done last minute like in the movies.

FYI: One of the last-ditch antibiotics (I forget the name) has a side-effect of permanently damaging hearing. I have to basically yell at 95 yo grandmother for her to hear me. :)

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