First New Antibiotic Discovery for 30 Years Gets up Superbug's Nose
One of the big questions facing the pharmaceuticals and life sciences and healthcare sectors is: what to do about the growing resistance of superbugs to antibiotics?
Following his 2014 appointment to provide an independent review on antimicrobial resistance, Jim O' Neill recently reported that 10 million additional people could die each year by 2050 due to the issue, which is partly caused by the lack of new antibiotics developed since the 1980s. He recommended several actions to be taken.
One solution has now arisen. A new antibiotic compound called Lugdunin has been discovered by scientists at the University of Tübingen in Germany. The antibiotic originates from bacteria found in the human nose. It has so far only been tested on mice rather than humans, but crucially its use in the tests showed no indications of enabling the bacteria it attacked to develop resistance and mutate. Lugdunin was found to kill MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Further work is needed, but this could be the breakthrough that everyone has been searching for.