Where will future antibiotics come from?
In the Aug 27, 2009 edition of The Scientist a UCLA infectious disease specialist makes an impassioned plea to help push for funding for the development of new antibiotics (1). Brad Spellberg, the author of a new book on the antibiotic resistance crisis, Rising plague (2), entreats scientific and lay communities for help in the quest for new weapons against antibiotic-resistant bacteria:
"This crisis will not be averted without your support, without a grassroots movement to put pressure on all sides — political, medical, pharmaceutical, and consumer — to band together to act. I will tell you what can be done, but we need your help to do it." (1)
Why does he need our help? Don′t we have the pharmaceutical industry to save us and keep us healthy? Apparently not:
"The problem here is not scientific. New antibiotics are dying before they have a chance to enter the marketplace due to a murky regulatory landscape and also due to unfavorable economics (i.e., the relatively low rate of return on investment afforded by sales of short-course antibiotics compared to sales of drugs for chronic conditions, such as hypertension, dementia, cancer, arthritis, and high cholesterol). Big Pharma has largely exited the scene. (1) [emphasis added]
Does he really mean to say that the wealthiest of all the multinational companies are unwilling to fund the necessary work, just because there is more money to be made elsewhere — even if our very survival is at stake? And I thought "capitalism" and "free markets" would solve all our problems!
Sources:
"This crisis will not be averted without your support, without a grassroots movement to put pressure on all sides — political, medical, pharmaceutical, and consumer — to band together to act. I will tell you what can be done, but we need your help to do it." (1)
Why does he need our help? Don′t we have the pharmaceutical industry to save us and keep us healthy? Apparently not:
"The problem here is not scientific. New antibiotics are dying before they have a chance to enter the marketplace due to a murky regulatory landscape and also due to unfavorable economics (i.e., the relatively low rate of return on investment afforded by sales of short-course antibiotics compared to sales of drugs for chronic conditions, such as hypertension, dementia, cancer, arthritis, and high cholesterol). Big Pharma has largely exited the scene. (1) [emphasis added]
Does he really mean to say that the wealthiest of all the multinational companies are unwilling to fund the necessary work, just because there is more money to be made elsewhere — even if our very survival is at stake? And I thought "capitalism" and "free markets" would solve all our problems!
Sources:
- Spellberg B. Rising Plague. The Scientist Aug 27, 2009.
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55951/ - Brad Spellberg. Rising plague: The global threat from deadly bacteria and our dwindling arsenal to fight them. Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, 2009.
If only the giant pharmaceutical firms are conscientious enough to manufacture effective medicines at its low price, this world will be a better place to live in.
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Capitalism and free markets have always needed a helping hand from the social-political realm. Left to their basic rules, there is little financial incentive to develop the new antibiotics. We must properly understand the interplay of market and social incentives to begin taking the political steps necessary to correct the trend away from developing the new antibiotics we will need.
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Great insight, great article, and thanks for sharing it.
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Kudos! What a neat way of thinking about it.
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That question is rather interesting, but I think that it would be different opinions on this case!
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Great insight, great article, and thanks for sharing it.
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