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Antibacterial discovery and development—the failure of success?

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.

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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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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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