We’re Losing the Race Against Antibiotic Resistance, but There’s Also Reason for Hope – NYT

While we can quibble about the exact cost of bringing a new drug to market, we can all agree that it’s a lot of money. Drugs in the United States are profitable when they are sold in great volume or when they are very expensive. Antibiotics, as a class of drug, provide a poor return on investment for pharmaceutical companies. They face low-priced and generic competition. Any breakthrough drug will almost certainly be held in reserve for only the most resistant cases, meaning there’s not a huge immediate market for it, when a company still has exclusivity.

Many people have proposed new ways to incentivize and reward innovation. The G7 group is poised to coordinate action, as is the G-20 group and the World Health Organization. In Davos last month, nearly the entire drug industry agreed. It released a statement calling for big changes in how we pay for antibiotic research and development, including the idea of “delinkage” or paying for value as opposed to volume of antibiotics sold.

From: We’re Losing the Race Against Antibiotic Resistance, but There’s Also Reason for Hope – The New York Times