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Originally Posted by Flagg
Is it true that Cipro is the one and only broad spectrum/general antibiotic magic bullet left in infection control? Yes)
Is there much in the antibiotic development pipeline? (No)
The last I remember reading several years ago was that the product development pipeline is anywhere from 7-10 years long and there wasn't much in the way of promise coming thru(antibiotic r&d gap).
I know down here on the civvie side there's been a major shift in recent years to protect antibiotic efficacy. When our kids were born starting 10'years ago, antibiotics were dished out like candy to placate worried parents.
Not anymore thankfully.
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The basic problem is the strategic approach we have been taking over the past 75 years. Antibiotic resistance began being noticed within a year or two of the widespread use of penicillin and sulfa drugs.
Think in terms of a UW strategy vs a DA strategy. We have been conducting DA centric actions against insurgent pathogens for 75 years and the insurgents are adapting defenses faster than we can develop weapons (antibiotics).
On the other hand nature has mechanisms to clear the insurgents that just gets overwhelmed at times and the infection leads to disease (note that most infections do not lead to disease otherwise we humans would not survive).
Think UW, i.e. working by, through, and with the indigenous population of cells and force multiplication via an auxillary to enhance the natural defense mechanisms.
We have shown that the UW strategy works very well and it doesn't matter what the insurgent population is.
The hurdle has been educatiing the DA centric folks. I would expect this different strategy to begin appearing in clinical usage in the next 3-4 years.
