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Bad Bugs, Few DrugsFrom: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Fri May 5 06:04:17 2006
Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds - The CDC is conducting a campaign to prevent antibiotic resistance in healthcare centers that consists of four main strategies: prevent infection, diagnose and treat infection, use antimicrobials wisely, and prevent transmission. However, federal officials have paid little attention to the flip side of the problem: the shortage of new antibiotics. Twenty years ago, approximately a half-dozen new antibiotics would appear on the market each year; now it's at most one or two. For decades we've relied largely on new variations on old tricks to combat rapidly evolving pathogens: Most antibiotics in use today are chemically related to earlier ones discovered between 1941 and 1968. During the last 37 years, only two antibiotics with truly novel modes of action have been introduced -- Zyvox in 2000 and Cubicin in 2003, the latter of which is used only against skin infections. Market forces and regulatory costs have exacerbated the antibiotics drought. Until about a decade ago, all the major pharmaceutical makers had antibacterial research programs, but they have dramatically trimmed or eliminated these efforts, focusing instead on more lucrative drugs that treat chronic ailments and other issues. Think Lipitor and Levitra, for example. Whereas antibiotics cure a patient in days, and may not be required again for years, someone with high cholesterol or erectile dysfunction might pop expensive pills every day for decades. Moreover, drug development has become hugely expensive, with the direct and indirect costs to bring a drug to market now averaging more than $800 million. More ... Read the whole thing. http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050406D Art
-- art fougner, md Support Free Speech Buy Danish!
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