Nasal Bacteria Pump Out a Potential New Antibiotic That Kills MRSA

Post by gilleain » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 1:37 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #63

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least if they'd kept their findings secret, researchers could independently be researching the same thing. Now independent researchers won't want to touch lugdunin because they'll need to license the patent, however they won't know whether licensing the patent is worthwhile until they do their research. This will prevent further research, not encourage it.

As someone who used to work in drug development, I disagree. Patents don't prevent compounds from being explored in research. If this is anything like other discoveries, companies will start looking at lugdunin very closely. What is it's mechanism of action? Can the structure be optimized? What else could it be used for? Other antibiotics have been patented and that didn't stop companies from doing the research and t…

Post by unclebucknasty » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:36 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #66

unclebucknasty wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we need more public funding. Otherwise, we have to offer researchers and drug manufacturers an incentive... I'll take researchers for $1,000, Alex. Not a knock to drug manufacturers who are simply acting as they should under the current profit-driven system, but I think we'd be far better off if more of this existential-level stuff (like health) were government functions, or at least government sponsored and not-fo…

If we applied that same logic to space exploration, Space X wouldn't exist.

Post by dpark » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 3:12 PM UTC

pwilsony wrote: post #72

This is totally misguided. If this develops into a widely used antibiotic it will eventually provoke immunity in its MRSA targets. These same targets will then have free rein in our noses. Not a good deal.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 3:19 PM UTC

zuzzurro wrote: post #62

iofj wrote: post #13

This does nothing to solve the real problem. The issue isn't (or wasn't) that we couldn't cure MRSA at all, it was a gradual evolution. In the 1960's we had 5 working drugs that would kill essentially any bacteria. And then we had 4. We discovered new ones, at one point I believe up to 7. But resistance made it go down pretty much by one per decade, but each next one ended faster. And then it hit zero, in 2012 I beli…

We are basically applying selective breeding in order to create the bacteria that will wipe the humanity out, and we are doing a very good job at that..

Post by refurb » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 3:29 PM UTC

briancleland wrote: post #42

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know but it wouldn't make a difference as long as someone else could come along and take out a patent on what they found. This is the sort of thing that requires and international treaty.

I don't see any reason why the researchers couldn't have placed their discovery in the public domain, just as Tim Berners-Lee did with his ideas. Unfortunately many universities (and hence researchers) are under pressure to commercialise their IP, based on the assumption that such behaviour is beneficial to the economy.