SuperbugsHeading off the post-antibiotic age

Published 19 October 2017

Worldwide deaths from antibiotic-resistant bugs could rise more than tenfold by 2050 if steps aren’t taken to head off their spread. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned of the danger of a “post-antibiotic age,” tracing the spread of antibiotic resistance to rampant overprescribing, to the widespread use of the drugs to promote livestock growth, and to the relative trickle of new drugs being developed as possible replacements.

Worldwide deaths from antibiotic-resistant bugs could rise more than tenfold by 2050 if steps aren’t taken to head off their spread, according to Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci, who has warned of the danger of a “post-antibiotic age,” traced the spread of antibiotic resistance to rampant overprescribing, to the widespread use of the drugs to promote livestock growth, and to the relative trickle of new drugs being developed as possible replacements.

Fauci, who spoke at Harvard Business School’s Spangler Center Tuesday afternoon, said the slow pace of drug development is largely due to poor economic incentives. Antibiotics tend to be inexpensive and taken by patients for a relatively short time, so there is less demand for them than for drugs for chronic conditions. Further, new antibiotics are used more sparingly so they will remain effective when resistance develops to other drugs, a strategy that, while sound from a public health standpoint, does not boost profits.

Fauci, the keynote speaker at a half-day symposium sponsored by the Harvard Office of Technology Development’s Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship, outlined several strategies to address drug resistance. Those include extending the length of new antibiotic patents so companies have longer to recover development costs, government assistance to “de-risk” antibiotic development by conducting or lowering the cost of the work needed to test drugs and bring them to market, conducting public-education campaigns to change physicians’ prescribing habits, and convincing livestock owners to reduce antibiotic use.

The session, “Fusion at Harvard University: The Science and Business of Combating Antibiotic Resistance,” featured remarks by Harvard President Drew Faust, Harvard Business School (HBS) Dean Nitin Nohria, Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley, and Len Blavatnik, the founder and chairman of Access Industries and a supporter of Harvard research. After Fauci’s comments, two panels discussed recent developments in the science and business of fighting antibiotic resistance and of bringing new drugs to market.