ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
There is new concern tonight over whether we are keeping up with our dwindling supply of effective antibiotics. More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to even our most powerful antibiotics, and experts are saying there are simply not enough new drugs in development. Antibiotic resistance has gotten to the point that resistant infections that five years ago were seen only in the sickest hospitalized patients are now being seen in healthy young individuals in the community.
There is new concern over whether we are keeping up with our dwindling supply of effective antibiotics. More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to even our most powerful antibiotics, and experts are saying there are simply not enough new drugs in development. Antibiotic resistance has gotten to the point that resistant infections that five years ago were seen only in the sickest hospitalized patients are now being seen in healthy young individuals in the community.
“I’ve taken zithromax, penicillin, erythromycin, and there’s another one that comes in a little booklet.” Melissa suffers from frequent sinus infections. “The last one I got was really really bad. I got one antibiotic which was like for ten days and they gave you different amounts each day and it didn’t really work.”
Melissa’s story is not unusual. The problem of antibiotic resistance is not new—when bacteria in essence “figure out” the antibiotics and learn how to resist the killing potential of the medication. So the answer is, make new antibiotics, right?
According to a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the antibiotic era is being threatened. There are too many bugs becoming resistant, and not enough new drugs in the pipeline.
Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist at New York University Medical Center, says, “So far, we’ve been able to keep up with the situation. When bugs have changed we’ve come up with drugs to cover it. We haven’t made as many antibiotics in the last ten years as we did previously. That could be a problem.”
We’re using what’s called broad spectrum antibiotics. These are drugs like biaxin, or z-pacs, when a simpler antibiotic like bactrim might work just as well. And instead of saving the biaxin for when it’s really needed.
“The more they see a certain antibiotic, the more they are likely to change into a resistant bug,” says Dr. Siegel. Since 1970, there have only been two new classes of antibiotics created. The problem is that there’s little profit in these lifesaving medicines.
Martin Mackay, Senior Vice-president of research and technology for Pfizer, says, “It’s certainly a factor when we decide to go into an area like antibiotic research and some areas are clearly more lucrative than others. But sometimes we just do the right thing there’s a society need we will work in that area. And antibiotics work into that category.”
Pfizer says they have quadrupled the number of scientists working on new antibiotics.
Still, Mackay says for every 100 ideas that a scientist creates for a new drug, only one comes to fruition. “It’s a significant worry. Resistance no doubt is on the increase, and is of concern to patients,” he states.
With the dwindling pipeline, we have reached an unsettling point…that could put folks like Melissa in danger of having an infection that no drug can cure. “This winter I’m going to get another sinus infection and I know we’re gonna try something else,” says Melissa.
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