Race is on to make drugs to fight super bugs

For the last 10 years, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and elsewhere have, according to news stories, been sounding alarms about the growth of antibiotic resistance, a problem that is particularly prevalent in hospitals, where microbes spread quickly and attack the elderly, people with weak immune systems and other vulnerable patients. Drug and biotech companies are, according to these news stories, betting billions on developing new drugs to fight “super bugs.” This is a gamble driven by the rapid rise of bacteria resistant to the more than 150 antibiotics on the market, pharmaceutical industry executives and analysts say.

“The handwriting is on the wall that the situation with drug-resistant germs is getting worse, not better,” said Hambrecht & Quist analyst Richard van den Broek.

FDA APPROVES NEW ANTIBIOTIC; RACE IS ON TO MAKE DRUGS TO FIGHT SUPER BUGS: Click here for complete text of article