WSMoreOrLess: Antibiotics and the problem of the broken market
The world needs new antibiotics so how do we entice big pharma back in to the market?
More or Less · BBC Radio 4
February 26, 20169m 4s
Show Notes
It’s a life and death situation – the world is at its last line of defence against some pretty nasty bacteria and there are no new antibiotics. But it’s not the science that’s the big problem, it the economics. Despite the $40 billion market worldwide there’s no money to be made in antibiotics so big pharma have all but stopped their research. Why is this and how do we entice them back in? Wesley Stephenson finds out. (Image: Computer artwork of bacteria - credit: Science Photo Library)