According to a 2013 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two million people in the United States now come down with antibiotic-resistant superbug infections every year. At least 23,000 victims die annually. And harmful bacteria and fungi are evolving resistance to deployed antibiotics at a quicker pace than we can come up with new drugs. From 1980 to 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved more than 50 new antibiotics. Since then, the number approved is less than 10and, since 2010, zero.
"We have to do something, because the old antibiotic approach is failing," says Ry Young, director of the Center for Phage Technology at Texas A&M University. "The problem is becoming worse, and becoming worse faster."
In the arms race with pathogens, here are some of our most promising new weapons.