New antibiotics desperately needed as germs become more resistant

Most drugs are developed based on the likelihood of high profits, which motivates investment, but researchers say this approach is not working to ensure global access to antibiotics in the face of increasing AMR. — dpa

Around 750,000 of the almost five million annual deaths caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – when antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines no longer work on bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites – could be prevented, researchers say.

In a damning set of papers in The Lancet medical journal, researchers criticise the current approach to battling antimicrobial infections and say medicines could save more lives if pharmaceutical development were less driven by profit forecasts.