A handful of public and private health initiatives take on the antimicrobial resistance fight
In nearly a century since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the number of new classes of antibiotics developed is less than 10. Bengaluru-based startup Bugworks has a lofty goal — to develop and produce a new class of antibiotics that we are not already resistant to. CEO Anand Anandkumar says the aim is to tackle the rapidly growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), that is excessive use and misuse of antibiotics which cuts down efficacy. Anandkumar was running a startup that used modelling technology to simulate cancer cases while reading about untreatable infections and slowly developed the gumption, as he describes it. We already have the world’s bugs in our backyard. Why can’t we develop an antibiotic too? Innovation doesn’t just happen in the Bay Area or Boston. Sometimes, it happens in Bengaluru.
