20 new antibiotics in pipeline to fight superbugs

A slew of potential antibiotics will have completed first-stage human tests within a few years
A slew of potential antibiotics will have completed first-stage human tests within a few years
ALAMY

Twenty “exciting and ground-breaking” potential drugs to fight superbugs are under development, the head of a global team of scientists searching for new antibiotics has said.

Cocktails of “good” bacteria and bacteria-eating viruses are among the promising approaches to fight resistant infections but development will stagnate unless pharmaceutical companies fund costly trials, Kevin Outterson, head of Carb-X, an international antibacterial research partnership, has said.

A slew of potential drugs will have completed first-stage human tests within a few years and at least one will prove successful if the industry backs them, Professor Outterson, who teaches health law at Boston University, said.

Overuse of antibiotics is speeding up a Darwinian process by which bacteria develop resistance to the drugs. No new class of antibiotic has been