barda op-ed

Rick Bright, Director of BARDA, shared his opinion on how the recent bankruptcy of Achaogen (a BARDA-funded biotech that recently brought an antibiotic to market, then saw such poor sales that it closed its doors) proves that the marketing paradigm for new antimicrobials needs to be completely reevaluated. He says BARDA "cannot continue to provide non-dilutive investment, only to have companies collapse and their newly minted antibiotics shelved or lost completely." He's optimistic that new business models and collaboration through public-private partnerships (like CARB-X) could help.