Antibiotics: ever diminishing returns

Professor Peter Taylor (UCL School of Pharmacy)

Antibiotics are among the most beneficial drugs ever introduced into clinical practice. However, eighty years on from the discovery of penicillin, the overuse and abuse of antibiotics have led to the evolution of multidrug-resistant pathogens, increasingly responsible for severe infections in our hospitals and communities. New ways of thinking about bacterial infections and their control may provide society with the means to face up to these urgent threats.