Antibiotics in late clinical development.
Most pharmaceutical companies have stopped or have severely limited investments to discover and develop new antibiotics to treat the increasing prevalence of infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria, because the return on investment has been mostly negative for antibiotics that received marketing approved in the last few decades. In contrast, a few small companies have taken on this challenge and are developing new antibiotics. This review describes those antibiotics in late-stage clinical development. Most of them belong to existing antibiotic classes and a few with a narrow spectrum of activity are novel compounds directed against novel targets. The reasons for some of the past failures to find new molecules and a path forward to help attract investments to fund discovery of new antibiotics are described.
Cempra, Inc., 6320 Quadrangle Dr. Bldg 2, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, USA. Electronic address: prabha.fernandes@gmail.com.
Prabhavathi
P
Fernandes
Cempra, Inc., 6320 Quadrangle Dr. Bldg 2, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, USA.
Evan
E
Martens
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
ABSSSI (acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections); Antibiotic development; CABP (community-acquired bacterial pneumonia); New antibiotics; cIAI (complicated intra-abdominal infection); cUTI (complicated urinary tract infection)