Development of new antibacterial treatments is inadequate – WHO

Geneva, Jun 22 (Prensa Latina) Development of new antibacterial treatments is inadequate to address the mounting threat of antibiotic resistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday. The 2021 report described the antibacterial clinical and preclinical pipeline as stagnant and far from meeting global needs. Since 2017 only 12 antibiotics have been passed, 10 of which belong to existing classes with established mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

June 22, 2022
16:15

According to WHO annual analyzes, in 2021 there were barely 27 new antibiotics in clinical development against priority pathogens, down from 31 products in 2017, while in the preclinical stage the number of products has remained relatively constant over the last three years.

More broadly the report described that, of the 77 antibacterial agents in development, 45 are traditional direct-acting small molecules and 32 are non-traditional agents.

Since antibiotics now have a limited lifespan before drug resistance emerges, non-traditional approaches offer new opportunities to tackle infections from different angles as they can be used complementarily and synergistically or as alternatives to established therapies.

Barriers to development of new products include the lengthy pathway to approval, high cost and low success rates. It currently takes approximately 10–15 years to progress an antibiotic candidate from the preclinical to the clinical stages.

For antibiotics in existing classes, on average, only one of every 15 drugs in preclinical development will reach patients. For new classes of antibiotics, only one in 30 candidates will reach patients.

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