Few novel antibiotics in the pipeline, WHO warns

The World Health Organization has reiterated its warning that there is a serious lack of new antibiotics under development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Only eight of the 51 new antibiotics and biologicals in clinical development to treat antibiotic resistant pathogens are innovative treatments that could add value to the current drugs on offer, a new report from the agency has found.1 Most of the drugs in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short term solutions, …