The reason they are not profitable is because generally antibiotics are only taken for short time periods. Additionally, it is almost certain that new antibioti

The reason they are not profitable is because generally antibiotics are only taken for short time periods. Additionally, it is almost certain that new antibiotics will be obsoleted by the emergence of resistance. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bringing a drug to market is already a risky proposition, even more so when your drug will be consumed in low quantities and may be useless before the patent even expires.