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AFAIK, the main issue is that we don't know how to cultivate very many kinds of bacteria (relative to the number of species there are.) Since antibiotics are a
by jinfiesto 10y ago
AFAIK, the main issue is that we don't know how to cultivate very many kinds of bacteria (relative to the number of species there are.) Since antibiotics are a by-product of bacteria, the number of antibiotics we can effectively produce are limited to the antibiotics produced by species of bacteria that we can effectively cultivate.
- crimsonalucard 10y agoI thought the main issue was that it wasn't profitable enough.
- fleitz 10y agoThat's vaccines and there are regulatory issues in the US with them, antibiotics are perfectly profitable. Also, only in the US does profitability seem to affect making basic medicines. Bacterial resistance is a global issue, not just one like vaccines that is largely a US issue.
- refurb 10y agoAntibiotics aren't generally that profitable in the US. The first reason is antibiotic stewardship: make a really great antibiotic and nobody wants to use it unless they have to. The other reason is that the way antibiotics are reimbursed in the hospital setting prevents charging a price that makes it all that profitable.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoThis is a tricky thing. "Not being profitable enough" isn't always a petty reasoning. With today's technology and science levels, you can do almost anything you can imagine - if you can get enough minds, hands and resources into the project, which is equivalent to throwing enough money at it. Technological advance today is really less about discovering new things and more about making everything easier and cheaper - so that projects that were previously too expensive become cheap enough to tackle.