Resistance diagnosis and the changing economics of antibiotic discovery.

Point-of-care diagnostics that can determine an infection's antibiotic sensitivity increase the profitability of new antibiotics that enjoy patent protection, even when such diagnostics reduce the quantity of antibiotics sold. Advances in the science and technology underpinning rapid resistance diagnostics can therefore be expected to spur efforts to discover and develop new antibiotics, especially those with a narrow spectrum of activity that would otherwise fail to find a market.

Duke Scholars

Author David McAdams Fuqua School of Business