A growing worry in medicine is bugs’ increasing resistance to antibiotics. At AstraZeneca’s research centre near Boston, scientists toil to find new weapons. Machines screen thousands of drugs each year, robotic arms nimbly handling plates of compounds to test their effect on bacteria. But progress is slow. “It is not our hottest area in terms of commercial return,” admits Martin Mackay, AstraZeneca’s research and development chief.
Drugmakers and antibiotics: The path of least resistance | The Economist.
