3 ms·

One problem is bacteria develop resistance to the new drugs very quickly. Usually within 2-3 years. It's difficult to recoup your investment costs for a drug t

• noir_lord 11y ago
  I think if you have a disease that is curable with an antibiotic that gets really out of control you will find that government funding will become much more of a factor. Been the government that threw a few billion bucks and saved thousands of (electorate) lives is a good vote winner. The cost of developing antibiotics is large (in the billions) but US defence spending is 600bn dollars, UK defence spending is 60-odd bn dollars. Governments should already be funding this stuff (imo) since the defence of the realm is theoretically their first goal.
• refurb 11y ago
  One problem is bacteria develop resistance to the new drugs very quickly. Usually within 2-3 years. It actually varies significantly across antibiotics. I can't find the source right now, but there was a neat diagram that showed the introduction of each antibiotic and when resistance was first identified. Some resistance was found in less than a year after the antibiotic was introduced and some were found 20 years later.