WSMoreOrLess: Antibiotics and the problem of the broken market
It\u2019s a life and death situation \u2013 the world is at its last line of defence against some pretty nasty bacteria and there are no new antibiotics. But it\u2019s not the science that\u2019s the big problem, it the economics. Despite the $40 billion market worldwide there\u2019s no money to be made in antibiotics so big pharma have all but stopped their research. Why is this and how do we entice them back in? Wesley Stephenson finds out.\n(Image: Computer artwork of bacteria - credit: Science Photo Library)