Prioritizing, incentivizing, innovating and maximizing data can bring hope in AMR

Thankfully, the growing anti-microbial resistance (AMR) crisis is now getting some major headlines and airtime, so that even many lay people are getting a good grasp of the issues at the heart of this global priority.

But for those working on developing and stimulating the development of new antibiotics (ABs), and on solutions to slow the rise in AMR generally, there seems to be just as many optimists as there are pessimists – though that confidence is based on certain steps being taken to reverse some of the current worrying trends.

The statistics are alarming when one considers that no approved antibiotic drug class has been discovered since 1980, and no new class has emerged to treat Gram-negative bacteria since 1962. These bacteria include most of the superbugs that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers the greatest threat to human health.