May 6, 2019

Companies ditch antibiotics as drug-resistant infections increase

Caitlin Owens

Cabinet full of pills — Photo: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

As the threat of drug-resistant infections rises globally, small and large drug companies are giving up on antibiotics because they don't turn enough profit, Bloomberg reports.

Details: One particularly striking example is an antibiotic developed by Achaogen targeting a superbug that appears in intensive care units, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.

While the antibiotic was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June, Achaogen filed for bankruptcy in April. The drug had made less than $1 million in sales in its first 6 months on the market.
Experts fear this story will repeat itself with other biotechs if something isn't done.

By the numbers: Only 5 of 16 antibiotics introduced between 2000 and 2015 made $100 million or more annually in U.S. sales.

Antibiotics bring in much less money than drugs for other types of diseases, like cancer.
And doctors explicitly try not to prescribe antibiotics unless they're needed.

The bottom line: While public health experts have ideas about how to fix the incentives around developing antibiotics, for now things aren't looking good.

Go deeper: Drug resistance could kill 10M people per year by 2050, experts say

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Companies ditch antibiotics as drug-resistant infections increase

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