Glaxo presses on to find the next critical antibiotic
Despite the rise of superbugs, big pharma has largely exited antibiotic research because of low payoff
London
IN A cramped lab in rural Penn-sylvania, surrounded by technicians in obligatory white lab coats and fume hoods leaking an occasional acrid smell, Neil Pearson holds up a plastic model of a chemical compound that resembles a spidery piece of Lego.
Mr Pearson, a 54-year-old chemist and senior fellow at British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithkline plc, explains how he spent more than a decade tinkering with chemical compounds before engineering a molecule that may yield the industry's first truly new antibiotic in 30 years to fight the rise of superbugs that risk killing an extra 10 million people every year by 2050.
Adverse reactions, including possible eye and heart problems discovered in animals, forced Mr Pearson to start over multiple times, with each re-jigging of the compound's atomic structure requiring a fresh round of tests to prove it was safe and effective. Mr Pears…
KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Consumer & Healthcare
Gazelle Ventures makes cash offer for No Signboard shares at S$0.0021 apiece
Marina Bay Sands Q1 profit surges 51.5% to US$597 million on tourism boom
Swiss watch exports plunge as China and Hong Kong demand dries up
Cutting the cord?: Events leading up to Cordlife’s MOH suspension and arrests of its directors, ex-group CEO
Billionaires selling cheap stuff get richer from inflation pain
Amazon to push cashierless shopping tech into more third-party stores, while backing off itself