Common themes in the evolution of drug resistance

Novel Approaches to antibacterial Discovery and Development<br>Today the problems caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that lead to annually 700'000 deaths have been recognized globally. The challenges that need to be considered are many: the quest for new antibiotics devoid of cross-resistance, antibiotic stewardship including reduction of inappropriate use, deployment of point-of-care rapid diagnostics, development of streamlined regulatory pathways and finding sustainable financing models. Considering innovative approaches to tackle AMR, there has also been renewed interest in the discovery of narrow-spectrum antibiotics and alternative therapies to complement the pipeline and reduce the dependence on antimicrobials. These include phage therapy , approaches to target persisters or inhibitors acting on pathways that are only essential for bacterial pathogen survival in the host. Development strategies including drug combination regimen will also be discussed. Importantly, these approaches will be considered in the context of the need to find new global business models for antibiotics