Globally, the effective antibiotics are becoming increasingly scarce

WHO warns: New effective antibiotics are in short supply
The increasing resistance to antibiotics often present physicians with significant problems in the treatment of once well-curable infectious diseases. Not infrequently, the pathogens are resistant to all common antibiotics and therefore do not respond to the usual treatment. The new development of antibiotics should therefore be given a much higher priority, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns..

The investments of the international community in the development of new antibiotics are, according to the World Health Organization, not enough. "Pharmaceutical companies and researchers urgently need to focus on new antibiotics for certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients within days because we have no treatment options," Dr. Suzanne Hill, Director of the Department of Essential Medicines at WHO, in a recent press release.

The WHO criticizes the lack of research and development for new antibiotics and calls for a significantly increased commitment of the international community and the pharmaceutical companies. (Image: Zerbor / fotolia.com)

More research and development required
The WHO report "Antibacterial agents in clinical development - an analysis of the antibacterial clinical development pipeline, including tuberculosis" shows that there is a serious shortcoming in the development of new antibiotics to combat the growing threat of (multi) resistant pathogens. "There is an urgent need for more R & D investment in antibiotic-resistant infections, including tuberculosis," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Without the development of new antibiotics, humanity threatens to fall back into a time when infectious diseases were feared and people lost their lives even in minor surgery, the WHO expert warns.

Hardly promising drugs in development
According to the WHO, most of the drugs currently in clinical development are modifications to existing classes of antibiotics and they only provide a solution to the problem in the short term. The current research has revealed that there are very few potential treatment options for antibiotic-resistant infections, which the WHO believes are the biggest threats. These include multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which claims around 250,000 deaths each year, according to the WHO.

Global health emergency
Antibiotic resistance is a "global health emergency that will seriously jeopardize progress in modern medicine," emphasizes the WHO Director-General. The current report identified 51 new antibiotics and biologics in clinical development for the treatment of priority antibiotic-resistant pathogens, as well as tuberculosis and the sometimes fatal diarrhea infection Clostridium difficile. However, among these drug candidates, only eight have truly innovative potential, according to the WHO statement.

Deficits in the development of antibiotics
Overall, the WHO has examined the potential of developing antibiotics in 12 classes of priority pathogens, including common pathogens that can trigger pneumonia and urinary tract infections and are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics. In the opinion of the experts, there are considerable deficits, in particular with regard to the treatment options of resistant tuberculosis and Gram-negative pathogens, including Acinetobacter and Enterobacteriaceae (such as Klebsiella and E. coli), which should be remedied by antibiotics corresponding to the new development. Because the mentioned infections often take a serious or even deadly course and represent a special threat in hospitals and nursing homes.

Global initiative for the development of antibiotics
The WHO continues to complain that very few oral antibiotics are in the pipeline for clinical development. These are urgently needed for the treatment of infections outside of hospitals. To address the overall problem of missing antibiotics, the WHO and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) have launched the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), funded by Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland provided more than 56 million euro at the beginning of September this year.

In tuberculosis, the research deficits are particularly clear
So far, for example, the research on tuberculosis, "with only two new antibiotics for the treatment of resistant tuberculosis, which have reached market maturity in more than 70 years" remains significantly underfunded, Dr. Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Program. If the tuberculosis threat is to be stopped, "more than $ 800 million a year is urgently needed to fund research for new antibiotic drugs."

However, with the development of new antibiotics, the risk of multidrug-resistant pathogens can not be eliminated, the WHO warns. In addition to better prevention and control of infection, it is particularly important to "promote the appropriate use of existing and future antibiotics." Therefore, the WHO also develops guidelines for the responsible use of antibiotics in the human, animal and agricultural sectors. (Fp)