Effectiveness at risk

Experts alarmed by antibiotic resistance

The spread of drug resistance is causing alarm among experts. "We are in the process of losing the achievements of modern medicine and reverting to the time before the discovery of penicillin," said Mathias Pletz, President of the German Paul Ehrlich Society for Infection Therapy (PEG). 

The effectiveness of antibiotics is increasingly at risk, he said, adding that antibiotics must be used with restraint and new resistance-breaking agents must be developed on an ongoing basis.

35,000 deaths in the EU due to antibiotic-resistant pathogens
According to the EU health authority ECDC, 35,000 people die every year in the European Union alone from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. According to the Robert Koch Institute, when antibiotics are used, they do not kill all bacteria - the resistant ones survive and continue to multiply. The development of resistance cannot be prevented, it can only be slowed down.

New developments do not pay off for pharma
According to the PEG, only twelve new antibiotics have been approved since 2017. Ten of these belong to classes against which resistance mechanisms have already developed. The problem is that pharmaceutical companies are increasingly abandoning the production of antibiotics because it is not profitable. There is therefore an urgent need for economic incentives from the government.