Another antibiotic crisis: fragile supply leads to shortages, reports Reuters

Writing for Reuters, Ben Hirschler covers the Foundation’s new white paper on antibiotic shortages: “Shortages of some life-saving antibiotics are putting growing numbers of patients at risk and fuelling the evolution of “superbugs” that do not respond to modern medicines”.

He notes: “Most antibiotics are cheap, off-patent generic medicines, which is good for affordability. But that also means they have very low profit margins – particularly compared to modern drugs for diseases like cancer – offering manufacturers little incentive to invest in new production facilities, looking at the market factors that.”

The white paper is titled “Shortages, stockouts and scarcity: the issues facing the security of antibiotic supply and the role for pharmaceutical companies”.