Antibiotic research need
March 13, 2014
FULBRIGHT scholarship winner
Suzanne Schultz has said the lack of
development of new antibiotics is a
significant public health problem.
Schultz, of the University of
South Australia, won the Fulbright
SA State Category Postgraduate
scholarship for her research
focussing on international and
inter-sector collaboration in
developing new antibiotics to
address resistance.
Schultz said there had been had
less than five new antibiotic classes
in the last 30 years.
ROI was not sufficient to justify
the cost of development as
comparative products were cheap
and effective, she said.
Only four large pharmaceutical
companies were involved in the
development space and with
resistance levels rising, a real worry
was a return to a ‘pre-antibiotic’
era, she said.
Her proposal included reviewing
models proposed by organisations
such as reACT and the London
School of Economics to tempt
businesses back into the antibiotic
development space by providing
economic and social incentives.
Schultz said her research would
also involve speaking with 18
thought leaders and decision
makers in Australia, speaking
with stake holders in Europe and,
through the Fulbright, the US, and
formulating her own model, which
she would then test with an online
survey of scientists working in
drug development, that she hoped
would yield 300 to 500 responses.
She was “very very excited”,
since the US was the biggest
market for and greatest investor in
pharmaceutical products.
Australia itself had a strong
international reputation for high
quality research, and unique flora,
fauna and soils that had potential
for analysis, Schultz said.
The scholarship was an
opportunity to represent Australia,
and bring back and share
information, she said.
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