Needed: Antimicrobial Development

Antimicrobial resistance continues to erode our therapeutic armamentarium for treating patients with bacterial infections. Clinicians are now encountering infections that are susceptible to few or even (although rarely) none of the available drugs. One of the multiple components of a strategy to effectively respond to antimicrobial resistance — the development of new antibacterial agents — is particularly challenging because of the nature of serious acute bacterial infections and the economic realities in this field. The initiation of antimicrobial therapy is urgently needed in patients with serious acute bacterial infections. Initiation is often recommended within an hour after presentation,1 despite the . . .