Surprised by the focus on developing new antibiotics since most antibiotics are currently given to farm animals. I initially thought reducing agriculture antibiotic usage would be the first policy pursued
Thanks for the comment Pat. Widespread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is certainty a concern, however, the role that it plays in driving resistance overall is quite poorly understood. We think it’s unlikely that because most antibiotics are used in animals therefore most resistance relevant to humans arises from their use in animals. This forum post gives a good explanation of why this is likely the case.
Given how poorly understood the drivers of resistance are (see this paper for more), and the fact that it seems unlikely that we’ll be able to reduce the growth of resistance in the short term though stewardship efforts, development of new antimicrobials seems to us to be a robust option to reducing the burden of AMR.
Surprised by the focus on developing new antibiotics since most antibiotics are currently given to farm animals. I initially thought reducing agriculture antibiotic usage would be the first policy pursued
Thanks for the comment Pat. Widespread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is certainty a concern, however, the role that it plays in driving resistance overall is quite poorly understood. We think it’s unlikely that because most antibiotics are used in animals therefore most resistance relevant to humans arises from their use in animals. This forum post gives a good explanation of why this is likely the case.
Given how poorly understood the drivers of resistance are (see this paper for more), and the fact that it seems unlikely that we’ll be able to reduce the growth of resistance in the short term though stewardship efforts, development of new antimicrobials seems to us to be a robust option to reducing the burden of AMR.