Has man behind Viagra uncovered the key to wiping out superbugs?

A BRITISH scientist who invented Viagra is close to a major breakthrough in the war on superbugs.

Dr David Brown has discovered that combining antibiotics with commonly available drugs can make them more effective against bacteria.

The idea could revitalise key antibiotics, many of which have become powerless against common illnesses.

Dr Brown, who co-invented Viagra in the 1980s, has tested more than 30,000 combinations of drugs against five superbugs in the lab – and discovered 30 mixtures which successfully break superbugs’ resistance.

The 67-year-old scientist, who is advising the Antibiotic Research UK charity in retirement, hopes to start clinical trials of those 30 most promising treatments within a year.

They could provide new ways to tackle serious diseases including blood poisoning, urinary tract infections and pneumonia.

‘This is a low-risk quick win,’ said Dr Brown. ‘It’s a short-term fix that can fill the gap we have ahead of us. It can lower the death rate. We can save our essential antibiotics.’

Antibiotic resistance – the process by which bacteria evolve to fight off drugs – is increasingly seen as the biggest crisis facing modern medicine.

The more that existing antibiotics are used, the more resistant bacteria become to them.

Superbugs are breeding at a rapid rate, with increasing num- bers of germs evolving to become untreatable. Earlier this year, a report by Lord O’Neill, the Government’s superbugs tsar, concluded that they will kill more people than cancer by 2050.

David Cameron, as Prime Minister, prioritised the issue, warning that superbugs’ resistance to antibiotics could send medicine ‘back to the dark ages’.

If antibiotics become unusable, key medical procedures could become too dangerous to perform because of the risk of infection.

While no new class of antibiotic has been discovered since 1987, a new infection emerges on an almost yearly basis. Part of the problem is that major drug companies see no incentive in developing antibiotics – which can cost at least £1.2billion each and could take 20 years – when they will make little profit because usage will be tightly controlled.

But Dr Brown has found that combining drugs can get around bacteria’s evolved defences, effectively bringing antibiotics back to life.

‘Amazingly it is not being done elsewhere,’ he said. ‘The UK can lead this change. More work needs to be done.’

Before retirement, Dr Brown spent 40 years in pharmaceuticals developing new drugs.

During the 1980s and 1990s he led the team at Pfizer which developed Viagra, the erectile dysfunction drug. He is named as co-inventor on the patent.

Professor Mark Enright, a microbiologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, said Dr Brown’s project was ‘hugely promising’. He added: ‘Anything that is going to improve the life or usefulness of antibiotics is to be welcomed.’

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘This approach is an avenue worth exploring.’