When We Lose Antibiotics, Here’s Everything Else We’ll Lose Too

[Avalux]

8. Big Pharma doesn't give a crap about antibiotic research.

Most of my career was spent in infectious diseases research, and there's very little money in developing novel new antibiotics. Most of the 'new' stuff are just cousins of those we already have. There's no money in antibiotics. ID docs are well-read and know their stuff, marketing doesn't really work with them. Also, antibiotics aren't given long term, like the designer drugs that rake in the profits.

My colleagues have been talking about the upcoming crisis for a long time, we all know it's going to happen. We can't depend on for profit corporations to solve this. There should be a government-funded and ideally, a global initiative for the development of new antibiotics. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Bacteria are living organisms and survive by adapting to their environment. Only an idiot would think our current drug arsenal will continue to be effective.