Why Is the Antibiotics Market Broken?

Big Pharma is abandoning its R&D efforts for antibiotics. What are the regulatory, scientific, and economic factors responsible for this potentially dangerous trend?

Our guest on this episode is Dr. David Shlaes. Dr. Shlaes is an infectious diseases specialist who trained was formerly professor of medicine at Case Western medical school in Cleveland, Ohio. He left academia in 1996 to become Vice President for infectious diseases at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He has been very prominent in the field of antibiotics research and development. In 1998 he was on the cover of Business Week in recognition of his contributions. In 2005 he established a consulting company and has been active in advising companies and policy makers. He has since retired but remains involved in the field. as an editor for the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and as a blogger on his site called Antibiotics, The Perfect Storm, which is the title of a book that he wrote a few years ago.