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Antibacterial discovery and development—the failure of success?

Nature Biotechnology volume 24, pages 1497–1503 (2006)Cite this article

A combination of approaches and compounds—many of which failed to yield immediate results in the past—will ultimately prove invaluable to the drug industry in the ongoing battle against infectious disease.

Antibacterial drugs have been the most effective of all medicines. Their success is reflected by their continued use and the decrease in morbidity and mortality from bacterial infections over the past 50 years. In recent years, however, the increase in the number of multidrug-resistant bacteria has led to the prediction that we are reentering the pre-antibiotic era1. In reality, the situation will be far worse because today's bacterial strains are not only resistant to commonly available antibiotics, but more importantly may also have acquired virulence genes. As a result, even commonly occurring bacteria have been transformed into invasive and toxin-producing pathogens. This precarious setting has been exacerbated by the cessation, or at the very least downsizing, of antibacterial drug discovery efforts at large pharmaceutical companies.

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Figure 1: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Albrecht Dürer, ca. 1497–1498).

© Burstein Collection/CORBIS

Figure 2: A timeline for antibiotic research.

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Acknowledgements

I thank T. Jacob John, Harry Smith, Jr. and Sir Richard Sykes, who passed on to me their knowledge and excitement for finding treatments for infectious diseases.

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  1. Cempra Pharmaceuticals Inc., 170 Southport Drive, Suite 500, Morrisville, 27560, North Carolina, USA

    Prabhavathi Fernandes

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Fernandes, P. Antibacterial discovery and development—the failure of success?. Nat Biotechnol 24, 1497–1503 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1206-1497

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