A new health analysis has revealed an acute shortage of antibiotics in development, particularly those needed to target potentially dangerous diseases.
A review conducted by the World Health Organization shows that only 12 new types of antibiotics entered the drug market, over the five years from 2017 to 2021, and that there are 27 types of antibiotics currently under development in clinical trials against pathogens considered “critical”, which are numbers The organization considers them very few.
The update on the new antibiotics was published Wednesday ahead of the European Congress of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, which takes place from April 15-18.
Of the 27 antibiotics under development, only 6 are considered “innovative” enough to be able to overcome resistance to previously popular antibiotics, and two of the six target highly resistant forms.
“In the five years covered by this report, we have only obtained 12 approved antibiotics, with only one of them capable of targeting all pathogens considered by the WHO,” Valeria Gigante, who leads WHO’s antimicrobial resistance division in Geneva, said in a statement. critical.”
She added, “It is difficult to predict if and when a license will be granted for these drugs, because failure is still a possibility in the late stages of the trials.”
The WHO report said that pharmaceutical companies are often not enthusiastic about developing antibiotics, because these treatments are usually short-term and less profitable, noting that they constitute a small part of corporate revenue compared to treatments for diseases such as cancer and heart problems.
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“The increase in microbial resistance to popular antibiotics around the world is very worrying, and without immediate action we risk going back to the pre-antibiotic era, where infections spread and become fatal,” Gigante said.
“Through increased investment and collaboration, we can make progress in combating antimicrobial resistance, and ensure that patients have equitable access, globally, to effective treatments for infections,” she said.
Venkatasubramanian Ramasubramanian, President of the Clinical Infectious Diseases Society of India, commented, “The world is already living in the post-antibiotic era.”
He added, “We lack a sustainable economic model for antibiotic innovation. The current products under evaluation basically meet the requirements of developed countries, which leads to an imbalance compared to those that need to be provided to developing countries.”