Superbug threat rekindles antibiotic research

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Antibiotic research -- a Cinderella sector of drug discovery in recent years -- may be moving back into the pharmaceutical mainstream as the threat from "superbugs" increases.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) became the latest manufacturer to recommit to the area on Thursday, with the announcement it was setting up three new drug-discovery units, including one devoted to infectious diseases.

"We are going to double our anti-infectives bet," Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Garnier told analysts in a post-results presentation.

"Society needs more antibiotics. By the time we get through, we think there will be a story on the front pages of the newspapers about healthy people dying from resistant bugs and hospitals having to shut down their burns units and the like."

Glaxo's decision follows a similar move by British rival AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which last month said it was investing $100 million at a research centre near Boston, Massachusetts, largely to scale up its work on infectious diseases.

In the past, antibiotics have been viewed by drug companies as a low-growth area and only 10 new antibacterials have been introduced since 1998, of which just two were truly novel.

But the emergence of so-called hospital superbugs such as MRSA, which are resistant to existing medicines, has increased the need for alternative treatments -- and it seems to be changing the economic incentives.