WHO Publishes Blueprints for Development of Urgently Needed Antibiotics

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published blueprints for development of “urgently needed new antibiotics for three types of bacterial infections.” CIDRAP has the news.

The new target product profiles (TPPs) focus on new antibiotics for severe multidrug-resistant gram-negative infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; severe antibiotic-resistant gram-positive infections in immune-suppressed and critically ill patients, with a focus on Enterococcus faecium; and community-acquired and healthcare-associated bacterial meningitis.

TPPS are written to “help accelerate the drug development process—and establish priorities for researchers, funders, and developers—by outlining the desired characteristics for new antibiotics.” All three of these targeted infection types are “currently treated with antibiotics that are becoming less effective as drug resistance rises, and there are few candidates in the antibiotic pipeline to provide new treatment options.”

The rate of new antibiotics being developed and approved is “good,” according to Yvan Hutin, director of antimicrobial resistance at the WHO, but “not sufficient to catch up with evolving drug-resistance bacteria, especially against those of greatest concern. … We need a reliable pipeline with new antibacterial agents that are innovative, affordable, accessible to all those who need them.”