WHO sounds alarm on drug-resistant bacteria

[Deeq A.]

Global health body warns none of antibiotics currently being developed are enough to tackle superbugs

The World Health Organization has warned none of the antibiotics currently being developed against antimicrobial resistance are enough to tackle drug-resistant bacteria that are expected to kill millions by 2050.

In a report published on Thursday, the WHO said that none of the 43 such drugs in the pipeline addressed the 13 most dangerous superbugs it had identified. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been described by experts as a silent pandemic.

_{Bacteria that cause pneumonia or sepsis are becoming more and more resistant to existing drugs, a process that has been accelerated by antibiotic misuse in humans and animals © Getty Images}.

Research suggests the spread of bugs that tolerate drugs kills about 700,000 people a year, a figure that could rise to 10m by 2050 — the same number of lives claimed by cancer each year. While observers and industry members had expressed hope the current pandemic could alert the world to the perils of under-investment in new drug research, progress has been stymied by one crucial problem: AMR drugs should be used as sparingly as possible, offering little commercial incentive for drugmakers to invest in research and development. The 2020 report finds the antibiotic pipeline is “near static”, with only a few new drugs approved by regulators in recent years. Most of these offer little benefit compared with existing ones, or are variations of antibiotic drug classes discovered in the 1980s.

A number of pharmaceutical companies have given up on antibiotic development altogether because it is unprofitable. Bacteria that cause pneumonia or sepsis are becoming more and more resistant to existing drugs, a process that has been accelerated by antibiotic misuse in humans and animals, according to Peter Beyer, interim head of the WHO’s global co-ordination department on AMR. The impact of AMR is most evident in poorer nations and among the elderly and young children. About 30 per cent of newborns with sepsis die because their infections can withstand multiple antibiotics, for example.

The innovation cycle to replace treatments is “broken”, Beyer said. “Very few new innovative anti-bacterial treatments will come to the patients’ bedside in the coming years, and even fewer are targeting the most dangerous resistant bacteria.”

The report also highlights new classes of promising therapies including phages — viruses that eat up bacteria; antibodies; and immune therapies that weaken the effect of bacteria. There are also a number of initiatives aimed at enticing investors and companies to act.

Still, scientists insist that because antibiotics are so prevalent and used to treat a wide array of infections in key healthcare settings, any delay in action could be costly. “We might be soon headed towards a post-antibiotic era, where a simple wound or a dental infection can be fatal,” said Hatim Sati, another member of the WHO task force. “That is what’s at stake here.”

Source: Financial Times

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