Urgent need for new effective antibiotics says MPH’s Schaffner
On May 11, The Pew Charitable Trusts released a strategy aimed at overcoming the 30-year drought in the discovery of new types of antibiotics. The Scientific Roadmap for Antibiotic Discovery identifies priority research goals and provides a detailed plan to advance antibiotic discovery efforts in the public and private sectors. William Schaffner, M.D., professor of preventive medicine, department of health policy, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said "There is an urgent need for new effective antibiotics, in particular for Gram-negative bacteria. Currently we rely on a small number of active molecules and for all of them natural resistance mechanisms have been detected. … Pew’s Scientific Roadmap for Antibiotic Discovery is a transformational research effort that complements Translocation’s work, and fills a gap in the global research landscape for antibiotic discovery."