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The antibiotic paradox: why companies can’t afford to create life-saving drugs

Paratek Pharmaceuticals successfully brought a new antibiotic to the market. So why is the company’s long-term survival in question?
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  1. Maryn McKenna

    1. Maryn McKenna is an independent journalist in Atlanta, Georgia, and a senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Human Health at Emory University in Atlanta.

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A doctor listens to the lungs of a patient with tuberculosis with a stethoscope

A patient in South Africa battles a strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to multiple antibiotics. Drug resistance is a growing problem with many diseases. Credit: Joao Silva/NYT/Redux/eyevine

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As the COVID-19 pandemic caught hold early this year, a small drug company outside Philadelphia was struggling to market a compound that could help patients battling for their lives.

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Nature 584, 338-341 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02418-x

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