[masraum]

Interesting stuff. Things are different today from what they were 50 years ago.

I read this somewhat related article the other day (same article, but on the BBC) and thought it was interesting.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/astonishing-medical-potential-soil-northern-ireland-graveyard-180973741/

It's about a scientist/researcher that's discovered some possible new antibiotics that would work against some of the new superbugs like MRSA. But apparently, there's not much money in that.

The current model for antibiotic development is in shambles. Due to meager profits and regulatory hurdles, legacy drug companies have largely abandoned research in the field, complain scientists confronting this issue. To bring a new drug to market typically requires an enormous outlay of time (10 to 15 years) and money (perhaps even upward of $2 billion). Unlike medications for chronic conditions like cancer or diabetes, most antibiotics are used for relatively short periods and are often curative. That might not matter if prices were high, but they’re kept low throughout the developed and developing worlds, which tamps down incentive for pharmaceutical firms to come up with new agents. Last year alone, three Big Pharma outfits shut down their antibiotic programs. The few that are left—Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline—often wind up vying to create compounds for the same infections. Given that bacteria can quickly develop resistance to a new antibiotic, public health experts recommend prescribing as little as possible. “Any new antibiotics must be managed very, very carefully if you want them to be useful, not just now, but in 10 or 20 years time,” Dyson says. “There’s not an appealing business plan for pharmaceutical companies—obviously they want to sell as much as they can within the patented lifetime of that antibiotic. So, in this context, good old capitalism doesn’t necessarily help mankind or our health.”