Investment incentive needed for drugmakers to develop new antibiotics, says Medicines Australia

Governments around the world must work with pharmaceutical companies to create the right policy environment for research into urgently-needed new antibiotics, says Medicines Australia chief executive Brendan Shaw.

Last month, he noted, the World Health Organization issued a new warning about the global spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Meanwhile, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet has identified a new gene that enables some types of bacteria to be resistant to almost all antibiotics.

'This has serious implications for Australia, where 7,000 people die each year from drug-resistant bacteria such as golden staph infections,' Dr Shaw said. 'That's almost 20 Australians a day. Governments must start giving serious thought to how they can work with pharmaceutical companies to encourage investment in new antibiotics in response to the growing threat of superbugs,' he added.