Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Can non-profits beat antibiotic resistance and soaring drug costs?

Effective, affordable antimicrobial drugs aren’t moneymakers, despite being desperately needed. Can non-profit organizations pick up the slack?
  1. Maryn McKenna

    1. Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist in Atlanta, Georgia, and a senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University in Atlanta.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Coloured scanning electron micrograph of gonorrhoea bacteria (Neisseria gonorrhoeae, round) on a human epithelial cell.

The bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae infects nearly 100 million people worldwide each year. Credit: SPL

Last November, a clinical trial offered a glimmer of hope in the often gloomy fight against antimicrobial resistance. An oral antibiotic, called zoliflodacin, was shown to be effective against the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea. And because it is the first of a new class of antibiotics, the drug also offers hope of stopping the spread of ‘super gonorrhoea’,which is resistant to most standard treatments.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 626, 942-944 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00543-5

References

  1. Urbina, J. A., Payares, G., Sanoja, C., Lira, R. & Romanha, A. J. Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents 21, 27–38 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Ahmed, S. A. et al. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 8, e2942 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Taylor, S. N. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 379, 1835–1845 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links