The 10 × ‘20 Initiative: Pursuing a Global Commitment to Develop 10 New Antibacterial Drugs by 2020

Abstract

The time has come for a global commitment to develop new antibacterial drugs.Current data document the impending disaster due to the confluence of decreasing investment in antibacterial drug research and development concomitant with the documented rapid increase in the level of resistance to currently licensed drugs.Despite the good faith efforts of many individuals, professional societies, and governmental agencies, the looming crisis has only worsened over the past decade. THE PROBLEMDrug-resistant infections and related morbidity and mortality are on the rise in the United States and around the world.The World Health Organization has identified antimicrobial resistance as 1 of the 3 greatest threats to human health.Two recent reports-one by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) [1] and another by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency [2]-demonstrate that there are few candidate drugs in the pipeline that offer benefits over existing drugs and few drugs moving forward that will treat infections due to the so-called "ESKAPE" pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species), which currently cause the majority of US hospital infections and ef-