Earlier this year, when the COVID-19 pandemic was on the verge of spreading, a Boston based drug company Paratek Pharmaceuticals was trying hard to market a drug that fights bacterial infections. It took over 20 years for the company to develop and test the antibiotic called omadacycline (Nuzyra). Though the drug doesn't deactivate the virus that causes COVID-19, yet, can be of great help to the patients who develop bacterial pneumonia, resistant to most of the antibiotics available at the market. The no of people who die of antibiotic-resistant infections estimated 700,000 globally every year, and expected to rise with the COVID-19 disease to develop secondary infections, mostly those in the ventilator. The drug omadacycline could be an addition in tackling the COVID crisis to save lives and fighting multidrug-resistant bacteria. The growth of antibiotics manufacturers skyrocketed in the twentieth century making pharmaceutical companies the most profitable market. But the past two decades have seen many corporations fall. However, Paratek Pharmaceuticals succeeded in getting a 5-year, $285-million contract with The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a US federal agency, for obtaining omadacycline for the troops to defend the bioweapon anthrax. Studies found that around 20% of patients develop bacterial pneumonia in COVID-19 cases. The Worldwide occurrence of newly emergence of bacteria resistant to multiple drugs and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified several bacteria as a threat.
The discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 paved the way to the modern era of antibiotics. Penicillin successfully treated bacterial infections among World War II soldiers. But soon penicillin resistance became a major problem and so the beta-lactam antibiotics that arrived later at the market. The threat from antibiotic resistance can tremendously impact the future of antibiotics and its replacement.