Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are becoming one of the biggest health issues of the 21st century, and Opal Biosciences, a small Australian biotech company, believes it has a drug that can tackle the rapidly worsening problem.

The US is interested in the company’s drug, BDM-I, with the US army keen on using it as a potential counter to biological warfare and the National Institute of Health researching the drug.

Associate Professor Slade Jensen, of the Ingham Institute and the University of Western Sydney, who is studying BDM-I to determine how it works, said bugs were becoming more resistant to the antibiotics available. He said that was combined with the fact that over the past decade big pharmaceutical companies stopped investing in antibiotic discovery because it was no longer profitable.

“We need new drugs now more than ever because some bacteria are becoming pan-­resistant,” Professor Jensen said.

The World Health Organisation’s 2014 report on global surveillance of antimicrobial resistance revealed that antibiotic resistance was no longer a prediction, but was happening now. The report found that without urgent, co-ordinated action, the world was heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries, which had been treatable for decades, could once again kill.

For more details, go to: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/opal-biosciences-takes-on-the-superbugs/story-fn91v9q3-1227439222780