It’s pay dirt for new antibiotics – turn to the soil

Antibiotics are losing their battle against infectious diseases. The World Health Organisation, the G7 and G20 countries at Davos, the European Union and the US have convened heavy-duty talkfests on the problem, as have New Zealand’s Ministry of Health, Ministry for Primary Industries, our Royal Society and others.

These organisations urge us to improve our awareness of antibiotic resistance, prevent infections, become less profligate in their use, and always wash our hands. But finding new kinds of antibiotics appears to be of little interest.

Our current antibiotics were discovered more than 28 years ago and are now reaching the end of their shelf life. Fortunately, new kinds of antibiotics are on the horizon. Until recently, research on antibiotic microbes was limited to those bacteria that can be cultured in glass petri dishes. But four years ago, inquisitive scientists searched American soil for microbes that refuse to be cultured in the lab. Among the thousands of unsuspected novel bacteria were 25 with prospective antibiotic properties.

Now, nearly every week, scientific journals carry more reports of potentially useful antibiotic microbes that grow in huge numbers in hundreds of soil types from around the world, as well as those from sea and freshwater. Many show great promise in combating hard-to-beat pathogens.

What are we waiting for? Why are we not on to these promising antibiotics? A big problem is that it costs more than US$2 billion for a promising chemical to progress from the lab to the pharmacy. Prospective drugs must progress through five or more clinical trials stretching over several years, before being put to any use. Even then, 90 per cent of drugs that start being tested don’t reach the market because they turn out to be unsafe or ineffective. The big pharmaceutical corporations comfortably make huge profits selling drugs for treating chronic conditions such as depression, diabetes, heart problems and chronic pain and are reluctant to gamble millions on risky antibiotic research projects.

If we do reach an apocalyptic ‘‘post-antibiotic era’’, who will fund the research? The United Nations, governments, philanthropic billionaires? My money is on China.

If we do reach an apocalyptic ‘‘post-antibiotic era’’, who will fund the research? My money is on China.