Fixing antibiotics: how to defuse the AMR time bomb

8 August 2025

Drug-resistant infections now claim more lives each year than HIV/AIDS or malaria, and the toll is rising. The World Health Organization warns that without urgent action, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could kill 10 million people annually by 2050 and drain 100 trillion dollars from the global economy.

Yet the world’s arsenal of antibiotics is dwindling. Since 2017, only 13 have been approved worldwide, and just two belong to new classes that attack bacteria in ways not seen before. The rest are tweaks on old drugs, useful in narrow situations but offering little fresh firepower.

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