The European Union, until recently very committed to the financing of the search for new antibiotic molecules, has backpedaled somewhat following the publication of an experts' report that suggests that public funds would be better spent on preventing the spread of resistant strains than on the search for new antibiotic molecules. Jean-Marie Frère and other European scientists respond in an article (1) published in The Lancet that even though it is undoubtedly important to do everthing possible to prevent resistant strains from spreading, it is equally important to stay one step ahead of bacteria. This article provides an update on the merciless combat between bacteria and antibiotics.

When the European Union launched its Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), it made a commitment to an important project on the study of the defense mechanisms employed by bacteria against antibiotics. This program, called EUR-INTAFAR, was started up in February 2005 and is still in operation today. It brings together sixteen research laboratories throughout Europe under the coordination of the University of Liège, more particularly Jean-Marie Frère, Director of the University's Centre for Protein Engineering.

Since the inception of the project, a group of experts has already submitted a report to the European Parliament entitled the Scientific Technology Options Assessment (STOA) of antibiotics resistance (2). Therein, they assert that public funding for this research should be withdrawn and that the moneys would be better spent on studies focusing on how to prevent the proliferation of resistant bacterial strains. On the basis of this report, the Union did indeed decrease its financial aid to research in the field. According to Jean-Marie Frère and his colleagues, this is a mistake. Although they agree that every attempt should continue to be made to prevent proliferation of resistant strains, they stress that it is equally important to continue searching for new molecules in order to stay one step ahead of bacteria which keep adapting and developing new defenses : proof of this may be seen in the dramatic proliferation of nosocomial diseases.

According to Jean-Marie Frère, this type of research should be financed by the public authorities, not the pharmaceutical industry. Professor Frère adds that "the global market for antibiotics increased from 22.6 billion dollars in 1996 to 26.9 in 2005 and should reach 28.9 billion dollars in 2008. It is obviously a growing market. However, the pharmaceutical industry has been in the process of withdrawing from the field in 1989. This can be seen by simply looking at the number of new molecules approved by the Food and Drug Administration per five-year period (the FDA is the American body responsible for authorising new drugs before they can be marketed). These numbers reflect the fact that many large companies have left this sector. If a pharmaceutical company decides to invest the large sum of money necessary to research a new antibiotic - circa 800 million euros – it would rather invest it on chronic diseases since patients will have to take the drug every day for the rest of their lives. This is guaranteed income. One must not lose sight of the fact, however, that the FDA's approval procedures and regulations apply equally to all antibiotics. It is hardly surprising, then, that there is a ground swell of protest that is questioning why an antibiotic administered for only a few days should be subject to the same safety standards as a drug taken daily for years on end."

(1) Chopra I, Schofield C, Everett M, O’Neil A, Miller K, Wilcox M, Frère J-M, Dawson M, Czaplewski L, Urleb U, Courvalin P. Treatment of health-care-associated infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria : a consensus statement. The Lancet infectious deseases, Vol 8, February 2008.

(2) Baquero F, Coast J, Frimodt-Moller N, Ropars A-L, Moller Aarestrup F. Antibiotic resistance. Brussels: Scientific and Technological Options Assessment, 2006.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/publications/studies/stoa173_en.pdf (accessed Dec.3, 2007)