Pharmaceutical Industry Challenges

In conjunction with the general public ambivalence towards superbugs, pharmaceutical companies are contributing to the threat of superbugs. The pharmaceutical industry’s actions have led to new antibiotics being created at a slowing rate, which could mean trouble for those who become infected with superbugs. In the article “Meeting the Societal Need for New Antibiotics: the Challenges for the Pharmaceutical Industry“ Seamus O’Brien (2015), an employee of AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporations, stated “There are significant challenges for the pharmaceutical industry to discover and develop new antibiotics including a business model that balances reasonable reimbursement with appropriate use” showing some of the actual …show more content…
The management of the use of antibiotics needs to be an international movement in order to ensure its effectiveness in keeping antibiotics effective. In the article “Nonmedical Uses of Antibiotics: Time to Restrict Their Use?” Richard William Meek, Hrushi Vyas, and Laura Jane Violet Piddock (2015), presented the results that were obtained from a study conducted for the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham, which concluded that “New antibiotics are needed urgently, but better use of existing agents is just as important,” as the team found an overuse of antibiotics in the practices of animal husbandry, beekeeping, fish farming, and horticulture. The conclusions reached by the team, outline that while the proliferation of domestic use of antibiotics has contributed to the growing problem of superbugs, the actions in other parts of the modern world are …show more content…
One of these possible solutions could be the use of government funds in regulation, as well as the grant process. Often, when problems face a nation as a whole, government will take action in order to mediate these issues through regulation. In the article “Concentrations of Antibiotics Predicted to Select for Resistant Bacteria: Proposed Limits for Environmental Regulation” Johan Bengtsson-Palme and D.G. Joakim Larsson (2016), researchers with the Department of Infectious Diseases, at the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, found that “There are concerns that selection pressure from antibiotics in the environment may accelerate the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Nevertheless, there is currently no regulatory system that takes such risks into account.” With the Swedish team’s findings, it becomes more important to seek global regulation of the use of antibiotics in food production, in order to minimize the evolution of these superbugs. Global regulation could prove effective in reducing the rate of antibacterial resistance, but another effect of these regulations could be a net loss in the food production of the Earth, as more animals would be lost to infections. Another possible means for government intervention, would be the creation of programs to further