Congress needs to fix the broken market for antibiotic development

For decades world health leaders and experts repeatedly warned that it was only a matter of time before a global pandemic – one as deadly as the 1918 influenza epidemic – struck. COVID-19 proved they were right. These same voices are now issuing another persistent warning that today’s leaders need to heed: Antibiotic resistance is a dire, growing threat that puts lives and public health at risk. 

Antibiotics – once considered “miracle drugs” but now gradually losing their effectiveness – underpin almost every aspect of modern medicine. So, without urgent action to develop new antibiotics, we face a world where so-called “superbugs” will not respond to many, or in increasing cases, any existing antibiotics. That’s why Congress should pass the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Upsurging Resistance Act of 2021, also known as the PASTEUR Act, to stimulate the development of new drugs to fight deadly bacterial infections.