Antibacterial research and development in the 21st century -: an industry perspective of the challenges

The continued evolution of resistance to antibiotics has led to wide ranging consultation at National and International levels as to how to address this issue. In addition to attempting to limit the spread of resistance there is growing consensus that a cornerstone requirement is the development of new antibiotics to help redress the balance of resistance versus available antibiotics. The availability of new technologies such as genomics has opened up new approaches for antibacterial research. It would appear that from an industry perspective, the research and development of antibiotics should be an attractive option. However, this is not the current perception at the majority of large pharmaceutical companies. In addition, the perceived failure of new technologies to create another golden age of new antibacterial classes has led many companies to prioritise other areas of research and, in some cases, to exit antibacterial research. In response, a plethora of small biotech companies have emerged with an interest in antibacterial discovery and large pharmaceutical companies may look to these as a source of development candidates although, to date, these have contributed a very low number of truly novel antibiotic lead compounds. As a reaction to these changes several initiatives are ongoing to examine ways to incentivise antibacterial research and development and ensure a healthy pipeline of compounds in the 21st Century.