| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2529987 | Current Opinion in Pharmacology | 2011 | 6 Pages |
New resistance challenges continue to evolve and spread worldwide. In an otherwise mature field, antibacterial drug development is primarily driven by resistance trends with a focus on development of new analogs of known scaffolds to strengthen them against class-specific resistance mechanisms. Currently new analogs of cephalosporins (with or without beta-lactamase inhibitors), oxazolidinones, glycopeptides, quinolones, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and ketolides are in clinical studies. While showing some benefit, these new analogs only partially address the clinical crisis of multidrug-resistant pathogens; this is especially the case for Gram-negative bacteria. The medical community faces grim reality — general solutions to the treatment of rapidly spreading multidrug-resistant bacteria are neither on the horizon nor anticipated.
► Escalating drug resistance is the primary driver of antibacterial R&D. ► Clinical development concentrates on analogs of known antibacterial classes maintaining focus on Gram-positive bacteria. ► New analogs address some class-specific resistance challenges and will buy some time. ► The race between drug development and emergence of resistance continues with resistance holding the lead.
