New antibiotics needed to prevent “health crisis”

New antibiotics are desperately needed because penicillin is becoming “obsolete”, a new report has claimed.

According to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), governments should take urgent action to spur investment in the discovery of new antibiotics to tackle the growing numbers of people dying from infections.

Bacterial diseases are the second-leading killer worldwide, and are becoming increasingly virulent and resistant to currently available antibiotics.

Elias Mossialos, professor of health policy at LSE who led the research, said: “Governments must take immediate action to preserve the effective life of existing antibiotics and strengthen incentives for the research and development of new antibiotics.”

The report, Policies and incentives for promoting innovation in antibiotic research, was been commissioned by the Swedish government. It calls for a coordinated strategy of major reforms across Europe to avert a “potential health crisis”.

It will be presented for the first time at an international conference in Stockholm on September 17th.