Is big pharma ignoring an impending antibiotic-resistance crisis?

Despite big pharma being criticised for not doing enough to tackle an impending antibiotic-resistance crisis, interest in the area of antibiotics research and development has decreased less than might be expected, especially considering the lack of commercial incentives, according to analytical research carried out by Withers & Rogers, one of the UK's top 10 patent and trade mark attorney firms.

As an indicator of innovation activity, patent applications in the area of antibiotic research and development have dipped significantly over the past seven years. However, when compared with the number of patent applications linked to finding drugs or treatments for other diseases, they have not fallen away as strongly as critics of the industry might think - patent activity in the field of antibiotics actually dropped 91% over this period, compared to an overall decrease of around 82% across all diseases areas.

Now on the verge of a crisis

Nicholas Jones, partner and patent attorney at Withers & Rogers, who specializes in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector, said: “Generations of antibiotic misuse mean that we are now on the verge of a crisis. In the future, the drugs that we currently rely on to treat bacterial infections may no longer work. In order for big pharma to make an increased effort in this area, the government needs to provide incentives to improve the risk versus reward profile of antibiotic research. At present it is simply not as commercially attractive as many other areas.”

Pharmaceutical patent filings have declined sharply across the board during and since the economic downturn. This has led to a significant reduction in patent filings across all disease areas. New anti-cancer drugs are a notable exception – the reduction in the number of patents filed in this area of research and development is less than 50% over the same period. This shows a relative robustness in big pharma’s interest in cancer therapy against the backdrop of the financial crisis. While patent filings for new antibiotics fell massively over this period, a comparison of patent activity by disease class shows that the drop-off in research to find new treatments for digestive, urinary, skeletal and glandular disorders was even greater.

Dr Jones said: “The data shows that research activity aimed at tackling antibiotic resistance has not fallen as much as might be expected considering the current lack of commercial incentives for investment in this space and the expensive nature of the research and development activity involved. This is confirmation that pharmaceutical companies are aware of the issue and keeping it on their agenda.”