A Dramatic Need. A Great Potential.

Bacterial Infections cause 14 million deaths per year worldwide, and antibiotics have revolutionized, in the 20th century, the fate of patients infected by pathogenic bacterias.

548 million bacterial infections are treated per year, including 136 millions in Europe. Pharmaceutical companies have developed and marketed several classes of antibiotics focused on specific infections, leading to a global antibiotherapy market of $37.3 Billion of total revenues in 2007.

Major growth drivers in antibiotics are cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones, which reached combined sales of $16 Billion, i.e. 45% of total anti-bacterial revenues.

In spite of this dynamic, the number of new antibiotics has steadily decreased for the last twenty years, in all of the families of products including the major ones such as beta-lactams, aminoglycosides, quinolones, macrolides, and cyclins. Moreover, no new families of antibiotics have been uncovered, and fewer major pharmaceutical companies are engaged in active antibacterial research. Thus, the lifespan of the presently available antibiotics must be preserved.

 Da Volterra’s approaches could contribute to limit the raise in resistance to actual as well as novel antibiotics, and therefore prolong their lifespan.

For a better understanding of bacterial infections, click on the following video: