New study is a chilling commentary on the future of antibiotics
We are not keeping up with the antibiotic superbugs that we created by overusing / misusing antobiotics. Imagine returning to a time where a small cut and kill you.
The health care market is failing to support new antibiotics used to treat some of the world’s most dangerous, drug-resistant “superbugs,” according to a new analysis by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine infectious disease scientists.
In a study published today in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, investigators used nationwide prescription data to determine that the current annual U.S. sales of new antibiotics to treat carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), one of the world’s most insidious drug-resistant bacteria, is about $101 million annually — significantly short of the $1 billion believed to be necessary to assure the financial viability of a new antibiotic. Even if new anti-CRE agents were used as widely as possible to treat CRE infections, the projected market size is only $289 million.