The millennium bugs — the need for and development of new antibacterials

Global antibacterial resistance is becoming an increasing public health problem. Bacteria resistant to almost all of the available antibacterials have been identified. The pharmaceutical industry and fledgling biotechnology companies are responding to the threat of antibiotic resistance with renewed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of antimicrobial agents 2000-09, Vol.16 (1), p.51-59
Main Authors: Bax, Richard, Mullan, Noel, Verhoef, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology
Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use
Antibacterials
Bacteria - drug effects
Bacterial Infections - drug therapy
Bacterial Infections - microbiology
Bacterial resistance
Biotechnology
Biotechnology company initiatives
Drug Design
Drug Industry
Drug Resistance, Microbial
Drug Resistance, Multiple
Humans
Pharmaceutical company initiatives
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Summary:Global antibacterial resistance is becoming an increasing public health problem. Bacteria resistant to almost all of the available antibacterials have been identified. The pharmaceutical industry and fledgling biotechnology companies are responding to the threat of antibiotic resistance with renewed efforts to discover novel antibacterials in attempts to overcome bacterial resistance. Both short term and long term strategies are being vigorously pursued. Short-term efforts are focused on developing novel antibacterial agents with a narrow spectrum of action to combat the problem of Gram-positive resistant bacteria. Long-term approaches include the use of microbial genomic sequencing techniques to discover novel agents active against potentially new bacterial targets. Better use of existing agents using pharmacodynamic data to optimise antibiotic regimens is increasingly being addressed and the hope is that such measures will prevail until the newer agents are available.
ISSN:0924-8579
1872-7913
DOI:10.1016/S0924-8579(00)00189-8