Drugmakers Race to Find Antibiotics to Defeat Mutating Bacteria
Bloomberg News
September 25, 1998, 9:58 a.m. ET
Drugmakers Race to Find Antibiotics to Defeat Mutating Bacteria
San Diego, Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Some of the world's
largest drugmakers, including Bayer AG, Merck & Co. and Bristol-
Myers Squibb Co., are racing to develop new antibiotics that can
beat the bacteria that have learned to fight existing drugs.
For those who learn how to beat the tougher bugs, the payoff
may be big. Pfizer Inc.'s new antibiotic Trovan may reach sales
of $1 billion in a few years.
''We're living in an era of microbial resistance,'' said Ann
Kolokathis, who leads Pfizer Inc.'s antibiotic research. ''It's
crucial to have new drugs.''
Pfizer and other big drugmakers will present research on new
antibiotics at the 38th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial
Agents and Chemotherapy, held in San Diego today through Sunday.
Bayer, Bristol-Myers and Schering-Plough Corp. will have
studies on antibiotics that have already been tested in humans.
Merck and American Home Products Corp. are expected to have
earlier-stage research on their new antibiotics.
A study to be presented later today examines how well
Pfizer's new antibiotic Trovan keeps bacteria from developing
drug resistance, compared with Bayer's Cipro, one of the world's
best selling drugs with about $1.4 billion in 1997 sales.
Targeting Resistant Bugs
Drugmakers such as Pfizer, and Merck and smaller
biotechnology companies such as Microcide Pharmaceuticals,
looking for ways to keep ahead of mutating bacteria, are
developing antibiotics targeted specifically at drug-resistant
bugs.
Antibiotics were widely introduced in the 1940s. By the
1980s, so many different antibiotics were available that research
interest in new ones flagged. ''People thought we were ahead,''
said George Miller, who leads research at Microcide
Pharmaceuticals Inc.
By the late 1980s, it was clear that microbes were catching
up with man again, he said. More and more cases of drug-resistant
bacteria were reported. Doctors turned to Eli Lilly & Co.'s
vancomycin to fight some of the toughest of these strains of
bacteria.
Drugmakers were encouraged to step up antibiotic research
again. The U.S Food and Drug Administration agreed to review new
antibiotics in six months, about half of the usual time. Last
year, the race took on new urgency when several cases were
reported of a very common bacteria, staph, resisting vancomycin.
Lilly's vancomycin became the ''last-resort'' drug by chance
more than design, Miller said. Developed decades ago, the
antibiotic wasn't widely used partly because of concerns about
side effects, he said. As a result, bacteria had little chance
to learn how to resist it, Miller said.
''No one planned on holding vancomycin in reserve for 30
years,'' Miller said.
Antibiotics also may be prescribed for new uses someday. For
example, doctors are now looking at bacteria as possible cause of
hardening of the arteries. Also called atherosclerosis, this
contributes to strokes and heart attacks, two of the leading
causes of death in U.S.
--Kerry Dooley in San Diego through the Washington newsroom (202) |
