CONCERNS are being raised that none of the 43 antibiotics currently in clinical development "sufficiently address" drug resistance in the world's most dangerous bacteria.
Launching the World Health Organization's (WHO's) 2020 Antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development report, WHO Assistant Director General on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Dr Hanan Balkhy, said the world was still failing to develop new antibacterial treatments to combat drug resistance.
"The persistent failure to develop, manufacture and distribute effective new antibiotics is further fueling the impact of AMR and threatens our ability to successfully treat bacterial infections," Balkhy said.
The 2020 report revealed a near static pipeline with only a few antibiotics being approved by regulatory agencies in recent years.
"Most of the agents in development offer limited clinical benefit over existing treatments, with 82% of the recently approved antibiotics being derivatives of existing antibiotic classes with well-established drug-resistance," the WHO said.
"Therefore, rapid emergence of drug-resistance to these new agents is expected."
The report said that only a fraction of the 43 antibiotics under development were likely to ever make it to market "due to the economic and inherent scientific challenges in the drug development process".
However, WHO Director of AMR Global Coordination, Haileyesus Getahun, noted that the COVID-19 crisis had deepened the global understanding of the health and economic implications of an uncontrolled pandemic.
"Opportunities emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic must be seized to bring to the forefront the needs for sustainable investment in research and development of new and effective antibiotics," he said.
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