Antibiotic Resistance Project

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose an urgent and growing public health threat. Common bacteria, such as those that cause urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted infections, are becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Without effective antibiotics, even simple infections could become deadly, making medical procedures like surgery, chemotherapy, and dialysis too dangerous.

The last time scientists discovered a novel class of antibiotics that would eventually make it to market was in 1984. That drug, daptomycin, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003, nearly two decades after its discovery.

Doctors around the world are increasingly seeing patients with antibiotic-resistant infections, but the task of finding effective treatments to keep up with rapidly evolving superbugs is made more difficult by the economic challenges facing pharmaceutical companies seeking to develop new antibiotics.