Antibiotics market is not too sexy for Big Pharma. Factum!

I have already written that antibiotics market is not too sexy for Big Pharma. Here is the indirect confirmation of the situation: Britain’s two biggest drug makers have joined forces in a £180m research collaboration in the battle against the growing threat from bugs’ resistance to antibiotics. 180m??? Two biggest drug makers gave only 180m? Well, it sounds ridiculous and we plain simply understand that they do not expect to produce any blockbuster. However, a couple of motivating numbers from the article:

Some 25,000 people die in Europe every year due to bugs’ resistance to antibiotics, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Drug-resistant bacteria cost Europe €1.5bn annually in healthcare costs and lost productivity due to days spent in hospital.

Despite the looming crisis, drug makers have been slow to develop new antibiotics. AstraZeneca and GSK are the only major companies that have stayed involved while others have been put off by the tricky science and unpromising commercial prospects (antibiotics are usually only taken for short periods of time). The pipeline of future antibiotics has been described by the World Health Organisation as "virtually dry".