What if antibiotics stop working?

Click on each column in the interactive chart to see the amount of research funding available from 2015 to 2020 for the study of particular disease categories. The red human figures shown in the antimicrobial resistance column represent projected annual deaths as of 2050, while the turquoise figures indicate annual deaths as of today.

The annual support levels for various research, condition and disease categories are based on grants, contracts, and other funding mechanisms used across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as disease-burden data published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of April 19, 2019. Source: MSCI ESG Research LLC, NIH, World Health Organization

The overuse of antimicrobial drugs in humans and animals is fueling a growing peril of drug-resistant infections, with few companies working to develop novel compounds that could help combat the threat. According to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is expected to place a USD 100 trillion drain on global GDP between 2014 and 2050 if new solutions are not developed. We believe that the companies best positioned to solve antibiotic resistance in the coming decade may be those listed in the chart, that have novel antibiotics in the regulatory pipeline today (eight companies globally). The problem is, a market failure is contributing to a lack of research and development and leaving society unprepared to address this growing global human and economic crisis.