Fact – no new class of antibiotic for the past quarter of century
Today the UK news was focused around David Cameron’s announcement of a review on antibiotics led by Jim O’Neill, an economist. This comes on the back of 3 other announcements in the past year, namely
- the G8 Summit of Science ministers met in London last June to discuss antibiotic resistance in medicine, and how governments can work together to develop new antibiotics and employ them more wisely.
- the government launched their Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy in September 2013 including 7 specific action areas on which the Royal Pharmaceutical Society provided
- the Longitude prize of £10 million was awarded last month to finding an innovative way to prevent the rise of antibiotic resistance
So why bring in an economist in to solve a medical problem?
To solve the market failure by …
creating incentives for pharmacos to develop new antibiotics
looking at alternative sources and types of antimicrobial agents
… to ultimately prevent a global crisis.
Pharmadale 