As another year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on a period of significant change in the pharma industry. There have been some mega mergers, a burgeoning of biologics, a number of technological transformations, a clutch of closures and drugs have begun to plummet over the patent cliff.
But in an era of change, some perennial problems persist. As is customary at this time of year, when coughs, colds and catarrh afflict large parts of the population of the northern hemisphere, the annual warning goes out regarding the rise in drug resistant bacteria fuelled by misuse of antibiotics.
Antibiotics have been around for 70 years, but no new classes of these vital drugs have been developed in the last 25 years, despite extensive research efforts.
And as drug-resistant strains of E. coli, S. Aureus and tuberculosis spread across the globe there is nothing left in the armoury with which to fight them.
Although awareness of the effects of overprescribing and misusing antibiotics is increasing globally, there is still a major problem in countries where antibiotics can be bought over the counter without prescription, notably in eastern Europe, where multidrug-resistant TB is a growing problem.
There is some hope on the horizon: researchers in the UK have mapped the genome sequence of MRSA, enabling them to target the transmission path of the infection and stop it in its tracks. The system has already been successfully tested, halting an outbreak of the superbug at the special care baby unit at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge.
But there is no quick fix to this global problem. And as the WHO points out, it is a matter for everybody: those who set policies and strategies, carry out research, produce and distribute antibiotics and those who prescribe and use them.
On behalf of all the team at Manufacturing Chemist, I would like to send all of you best wishes for the holiday season and a happy, healthy, prosperous and antibiotic-free year in 2013.
