Strategic Patenting Stifles Antibiotic Innovation
By: Brian Wilmans
Antibiotics are one of humanity’s greatest discoveries. They’ve made it possible to eradicate instances where a cut on a finger could turn fatal due to bacterial infection.
However, today, antibiotics are losing their efficacy. The CDC tracked seven different strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from 2019-2022, and six out of the seven increased their prevalence by 20 percent.[1] Overprescription of antibiotics is certainly a contributing factor in the increase in resistance, but another factor is the decreased number of new antibiotic classes being brought to market. Since the first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1940, the largest gap between new types of antibiotics being invented had been 13 years.[2] We are now in year 15 since the last novel class of antibiotic was created. There are myriad reasons for that, from funding for R&D to decreased profit margin for pharmaceutical companies. However, another reason for it that may be more on the periphery: pharmaceutical companies’ practice of strategic patenting.
