Antibiotics, antibacterial drugs, and the role of antibiotic resistance (Short notes)

Thanks to the development of medicine and technology over the past 60 years, the death rate in the world has halved and in 2022 was about 8 deaths per 1,000 population.?

The 3 most common reasons people die today are:?

1. cardiovascular diseases (18.5 million people died in 2019, 53.8% increase in mortality over 30 years)

2. cancer (10.1 million people died in 2019, 75% increase in mortality over 30 years)

3. respiratory diseases, including Covid (4.1 million people died in 2019, 19.6% increase in mortality over 30 years)

More than 80% of all investments in the field of drug development are spent on research and development of drugs for the treatment and prevention of these diseases!

But there is one dark horse that will soon become the most terrible problem and cause of death. It's called ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE!!!

In 2019, 4.9 million people died from causes related to antibiotic resistance!

Research on antibiotic resistance was not conducted 30 years ago, but I dare to assume that the growth rate is significantly higher than 100% and certainly significantly higher than from the three most common reasons for which people lose their lives today.

In 30 years, but probably even faster, unless, of course, the approach to financing the creation of new drugs for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases of a bacterial nature change, this will be the main cause of death and the main challenge for medicine!

Yes, now, so to speak, it is fashionable and prestigious to develop drugs against cancer, but antibacterial agents are not prestigious. Of course, the cost of developing a cure for cancer is $1 billion, and it does not matter whether this drug is effective. But it will be fabulously expensive!!!?

Why develop antibacterial drugs - after all, the cost of their development will be 10 times less. And the terms of use are significantly shorter since in a couple of years they will receive antibiotic resistance. Of course, it is more profitable to develop drugs for oncology because they can be sold to the patient for years and at a high price. And antibiotics can only be given to the patient for a couple of weeks ...

It is for this reason that almost all big pharmaceuticals have abandoned developments in this direction. They are simply not profitable and not interested!!!

The development of antibiotics is carried out mainly by small firms. It is more important for them to reach Phase 2 with an interesting idea and sell themselves to someone from big pharma than to create a really working antibiotic.

As they say: only business and nothing personal.

This is not to say that nothing is being done to change the situation. For example, the adoption of the Pasteur Law... But this is more like another purely corrupt feeder for big-pharma and those close to, and often affiliated with, large fund companies. A narrow circle of the elect in Phase 3. Initially, this will not solve the problem.

And the problem is getting bigger and worse.

Indeed, for the treatment and prevention of the three most common diseases, it is impossible to do without the use of antibiotics.

Of course, you need to invest billions in the development of orphan diseases.

But it is antibiotics that save millions of lives every day.

And the most effective of the active ones already have resistance, and it progresses at an alarming rate, and this is already scary.