Collection 

Anti-infective drug development: histories, uses and policies

Submission status
Closed
Submission deadline

This Collection invites perspectives on the historical, socio-cultural and bio-medical facets of anti-infectives, including failure and success stories of anti-infective drugs, a discourse of pharmaceuticals and people inside the drug pipeline, and tightly focused examinations on policy or market decisions. We take historical perspectives as our point of departure and backbone but are not limited to it.

Research is primarily welcomed on the following five axes of anti-infective drug development, use, and policy; although other perspectives will be also considered:

    ● I, Imagination & Innovation

        ○ How has imagination and innovation regarding anti-infective drug development, use, and policy evolved?

        ○ What innovation is needed?

    ● II, Push, Pull, Politics, and Policy

        ○ How have financial investments, political interferences, and corporate/governmental policies influenced anti-infective drug development and use?

        ○ What barriers are there to fiscal, politics, or policy measures that inhibit or complicate anti-infective drug development and use?

    ● III, Co-constructed drugs: sociocultural approaches

        ○ How is the anti-infective drug pipeline socio-culturally constructed and shaped by both researchers and consumers in all its facets (research, clinical trials and efficacy, policy creation, commercialization, marketing and packaging, prescription, use and consumption, etc.)?

        ○ How is the unrecognition of these sociocultural dimensions (including gender, class, race, etc.) causing anti-infectious initiatives to fail? How taking them into account has resulted or would result in successful drug development and use?

    ● IV, Pharmaceutical Companies and ‘bulk antibiotics’

        ○ How do pharmaceutical companies view the anti-infective drug development pipeline and how did this gaze change over time?

        ○ How do pharmaceutical companies respond to policies, and how does industry prioritise anti-infectives within their product lines?

    ● V, Drug development - Inside the Lab.

        ○ How has the development of anti-infectives changed over time? Did empirical methodology affect the development of new antimicrobials?

        ○ What are the main lines of investigation nowadays and what are the prognostics to mitigate the shortage in new antibiotics?

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3.

pile of colourful pills, 3d rendering, conceptual image

Editors