The world is linkurl:facing a crisis:;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55951/ Bacteria have become linkurl:more and more resistant;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53982/ to virtually all existing antibiotics, yet many companies are abandoning the field in favor of more lucrative medicines.
People are proposing various solutions, such as offering financial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to linkurl:spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/57352/ But along with creating new drugs, we can get more life from our existing antibiotics and maintain their utility. As the head of a company focused on the development of compounds to treat and prevent a wide range of infections without causing bacterial resistance, this is an issue I find both fascinating and vitally important. In my opinion, there are five ways we can extend the functional life of our antibiotic arsenal.1. Do the obvious In a recent linkurl:New York Times;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/health/policy/06germ.html article, linkurl:Ramanan Laxminarayan,;http://www.rff.org/Researchers/Pages/ResearchersBio.aspx?ResearcherID=41 director of the linkurl:Extending the Cure;http://www.extendingthecure.org/ project on...
 |
Image: NovaBay |
E. coli2. Assess the impact
3. Explore entirely different drugs4. Inactivate multiple essential targets5. Encourage and incentivize the industryRon Najafi, PhD is chairman and CEO of linkurl:NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NBY).,;http://www.novabaypharma.com/company/profile an Emeryville, California-based biotechnology company developing anti-infective compounds for the treatment and prevention of antibiotic-resistant infections. He can be reached at rnajafi@novabaypharma.com.
 |
Image: NovaBay |
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!