
Scientists say they have created a new platform for antibiotic discovery - jseliger
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/harvard-team-takes-major-step-toward-overcoming-antibiotic-resistance/81252750/
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danieltillett
The problem is not finding new antibiotics, it is getting them to market.
Given the way the current drug development system has been designed it is very
hard to bring a new antibiotic to market and make a profit. Because of this
most pharma companies have long ago shut down their antibiotics divisions.

We really need a new approach for funding the development of new antibiotics.
My personal favourite is a straight cash reward with a sliding scale for
novelty and utility. Just pay the pharma companies a billion dollars in cash
for each new antibiotic they bring to market and we will be awash in new
antibiotics.

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anexprogrammer
By that do you mean the trials, safety testing and licensing side of it, or
the way drug companies approach new drug development?

I've never quite understood why we can't approach new antibiotics like we have
with many enzymes - lab forced evolution. That manages to produce dozens of
new ones for food, washing powder and the like, so antibiotic discovery seems
like an excellent place to use it.

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chris_va
That doesn't really work unless your antibiotic is going to be a short chain
peptide, which might find something but would be extremely unlikely.

Besides, fungi/bacteria have been waging this evolutionary war for a billion
years, and we haven't tapped much of anything past beta-lactam (ala
penicillin) from that arms race.

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EGreg
The platform isn't the problem, it's the economic system for drug research.
Science and free (copyleft) software are a gift economy, and they have
outpaced proprietary software. We recognize that patents are bad in software,
open source does better than the profit motive. What's more, it can serve the
long tail way better!! While Windows runs on some devices, there are
_toasters_ that run Linux. Someone in the world could be Working to add
knowledge that can lead to cures for Malaria and the Zika virus, unencumbered
by patents. But we'd need prizes.

What would it take for this to become a drug? Well, studies and FDA approval,
for one. That takes a lot of money. So how can we raise this money without
patents? One way would be government funding, but there is plenty of public
funding as well through foundations, etc. What is lacking is a well-developed
infrastructure for a growing body of patentleft drugs, the same as software.

We need patentleft in drugs:
[http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93](http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93)

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apo
"Synthetic route" would be a better description than "platform."

Nevertheless, this is a long, complicated synthetic procedure. It may be
simpler than others, but it's much more elaborate than the approaches to many
other drugs.

At the end of the day, you end up with a molecule whose pharmacological
properties may be very far removed from what you're looking for. These are
big, highly functionalized molecules - in other words far from ideal drug
candidates.

As others have noted, the biggest hurdles in drug development come late in the
process. That's when, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on Phase
1 and Phase 2 studies, a company finally figures out if they have a drug or
not.

Drug development is most decidedly a "waterfall" process. There is no such
thing as Agile Drug Discovery, and this paper doesn't really move the
goalposts on that front.

