Developing a vaccine or anti-infective is slow and capital-intensive. By 2050, superbugs could kill more people than cancer and cause a $60 trillion to $100 trillion reduction in global output. There is elevated activity around a Covid-19 vaccine, but development of anti-infectives has faltered for some time. In the past five years Sanofi, Glaxosmithkline, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Astrazeneca have closed R&D labs focused on antibiotics. Anti-infectives should be like fire sprinklers for society; instead, the flames are blazing out of control.

Source: The Times August 03, 2020 16:07 UTC