Anti-Microbial Resistance and the search for New Antibiotics

The ‘antibiotic crisis’ is rarely out of the news these days, with headlines issuing dire warnings that the rise in resistance to anti-microbial drugs could result in a return to the medical dark ages. In order to tackle this problem, various initiatives have been proposed on both sides of the Atlantic, both to incentivise research into novel antibiotics and to change current prescribing behaviour in an attempt to limit the spread of resistance to existing antibiotic drugs.