We at ACSH have written frequently about the misguided change in mindset by the FDA two decades ago that brought most antibiotic research to a dead stop.
No one has been deeper in the FDA trenches than ACSH advisor and infectious disease expert Dr. David Shlaes. He has been blogging, advising, lobbying, begging, and doing just about everything short of pulling his hair out to convince the infectious disease division of the FDA to reverse the disastrous changes in clinical trial policy that caused almost all drug companies to abandon research in this area.
antibiotic resistance
Get the latest news on the costly Hepatitis C drug, why C-sections have skyrocketed in numbers, and the real reason behind the lack of research on antibiotic research
While it s good to see that The New York Times is taking note of the crisis of antibiotic resistance, it is unfortunate that they could not be
Antibiotic resistance is no longer a far a distant threat of the future, rather a major obstacle
The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, in particular a strain of Staphlococcus aureus (SA ) resistant to methicillin (MRSA) (a member of the fluoroquinolone class of drugs) has concerned physicians and caused hospitals to review and revamp their sanitation procedures.
The Centers for Disease Control and New England Journal of Medicine reported on Wednesday a promising decline in hospital
The Center for Disease Control s (CDC) ongoing efforts to prevent and control the spread of antibacterial-resistant infections has yielded new areas of intervention. They report doctors in some
A the end of every year there is a tally of the number of new drugs that were approved by the FDA during that year. This was recently covered quite thoroughly in a Forbes.com op-ed by Bernard Munos entitled The FDA Approvals of 2012: A Watershed? Munos points out that the number of approvals in 2013 (27) was down sharply from the 37 new drugs that were approved in 2012. While this may be an important number for the pharmaceutical industry, in terms of public health these numbers don t mean all that much.
Every now and then our government gets something right. This is one of those times.
What is unfortunate is that it should have never come to this in the first place. Because 20 years ago our government got it really wrong, for which we are now paying a steep price.
A long-running controversy has reared its head again whether or not antibiotics should be added to animal feed to promote the growth of cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.
This time, the FDA is considering whether to ban this practice, although they are only talking about voluntary compliance at this time.
As would be expected, opinions vary widely, with farmers on one side and various medical and non-governmental organizations, and individuals on the other.
In today s you must be kidding news, the FDA, prodded by the Obama administration, told Congress that they were very concerned about the threat of bacteria that are immune to drugs.
We at ACSH have warned repeatedly about the nightmarish scenario that continues to unfold as more and more bacteria become resistant to previously-effective antibiotics, bringing us to the precipice of the pre-penicillin era where common infections such as strep throat and pneumonia were killers.