Two federal programs are coordinating on $20 million in prizes for all phases of competition for new, innovative, and novel laboratory diagnostic tests to combat the development and spread of drug-resistant bacteria. Announced Sept. 8 by the National Institutes of Health and the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the competition…
FDA: Marketing, labeling of animal antibiotics to change in 2017
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tightening up regulations on the marketing and labeling of so-called “medically important antimicrobials” used on food animals. Such a move has long been sought by those concerned about how overuse of such drugs can lead to antibiotic resistance and threaten public health. In recent weeks, the antibiotic-resistant…
Study: E. Coli Can Transfer Antibiotic Resistance to Other Bacteria
Scientists have discovered a gene in E. coli that makes it resistant to a class of “last-resort” antibiotics known as polymyxins. The gene can also transfer resistance to other epidemic pathogens such as K. pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. According to research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the mcr-1 gene is widespread in…