Toulouse, 3rd August, 2019 (WAM) — Bacterial infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antimicrobials, due to overprescription or misuse, making the healing process more complicated, as is the case for Gram-positive bacteria, particularly responsible for urinary tract infections, pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus.
Yet no new class of antibiotics has been introduced to the market for more than thirty years, a “shocking” lack of innovation in a field that drug manufacturers have neglected because it is not very profitable.
According to a study published in The Lancet in 2022, one person dies every 25 seconds due to infection with resistant bacteria.
For several years, a large portion of major pharmaceutical companies have stopped research focused on antibiotics, which are long, complex and have a high risk of failure, in favor of developing treatments for tumors or rare diseases that are more profitable.
The French Press Agency quoted Pierre Dubois, a professor specializing in economics at the Toulouse University of Economics, as saying that the need exists, but there is not enough investment.
“Of the small group of biotech companies that continue to work on finding new antibiotics, very few have managed to raise enough money to invest in research and innovation,” says Frédéric Perrin, secretary general of the BEAM Alliance, which aims to encourage the development of new treatments for drug-resistant diseases.
When a lab does succeed in inventing a new antibiotic, sales aren’t huge because health professionals want to save the new antibiotics for the toughest cases, or as Dubois explains when common antibiotics become ineffective.
This limited use is intended to slow the development of bacterial resistance, but it has the detrimental effect of reducing returns on investment, creating a “dilemma” for manufacturers who have to invent new antibiotics that are not being used, says Catherine Renaud, director of public affairs at Pfizer.
The antibiotic field is different because newer treatments do not replace older ones, which still meet most treatment needs. And, as Catherine Renaud said during a discussion on antibiotic treatment last June, maintaining these new products is complicated because prices are constantly falling.
Reno said her group has set a goal of launching two to four new antibiotics by 2030.
In addition, antibiotics are consumed for a specific period of time, unlike treatments for chronic diseases.
“This sector is not very attractive,” says Frédéric Perrin, Secretary General of the BIM Alliance, noting that 80% of the antibiotics portfolio under development is currently in the hands of small and medium-sized companies.
It is difficult to make new antibiotics profitable when drug companies’ profits are calculated on sales volume, which is why a number of experts are calling for another payment model for this family of drugs and economic incentives to encourage research.
At the European level, discussions are underway on the possibility of transferring exclusivity, which would allow pharmaceutical companies working on developing new antibiotics to extend exclusivity for one year on other medicines in their portfolio that are already on the market.
“Whoever gets an exclusivity can either apply it to a product in their portfolio or sell it to a third party,” Biran said.
Pierre Dubois believes that the alternative is “the European Union’s agreement to fund this research,” considering that in both cases it would be “very costly.”
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