Restarting the antibiotic pipeline. 2/2.

Part two of a two-part series examining the looming crisis of antibiotic resistance. Part Two looks at the commercial issues surrounding antibiotic discovery. Pease describes the commercial history of antibiotic development and talks to a bio-entrepreneur about his current projects concerning bacteria. Pease also mentions the outbreak of Klebsiella in Greece. He then talks to economist Jim O’Neill regarding the investment potential of antibiotic discovery for commercial pharmaceutical companies. Chemist Dr. Steven Brickner describes his time project managing the creation of Linezolid for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals. Microbiologist Lynn Silver further discusses antibiotic development from a commercial sales perspective. Medicinal Chemist Denton Hoyer (Yale University) explains High Throughput Screening (HTS). Medicinal Chemist Shahriar Mobashery (University of Notre Dame) discusses the economic theory surrounding pharmaceutical companies’ investment in antibiotics. Medicinal Therapist Michael Kinch (Washington University) discusses his documentation of the decline in antibiotic research and the retreat of major pharmaceutical companies from the arena (specifically Pfizer). CEO of Achaogen, Ken Hillan, explains the reasoning behind pharmaceutical companies’ reluctance to invest in antibiotic discovery. Medical Legal Expert Kevin Alderson (Boston University) discusses the commercial implications of developing a drug that cures everything, such as the antibiotic. He also talks about the complications of patent law. Pease and Alderson discuss de-linkage by pharmaceutical companies, and Hillan discredits de-linkage as a long-term marketing model. Pease discusses Achaogen’s Plazomicin being awarded QDIP (Qualified Infectious Disease Project). Pease and Hillan discuss potential governmental funding for discovery and development programmes for antibiotic research in the U.S. Pease explains NovaBiotics’ discovery of a wonder compound. Professor Kim Lewis (Northeastern University) explains why and how to grow uncultured bacteria in their natural environment using a Diffusion Chamber. Silver and Piddock talk about the investment in antibiotic discovery by the public sector, and government grants for antibiotic discovery in the UK. Piddock discusses the role of the Medical Research Council in relation to this, whilst Alderson compares this situation to the U.S.