Superbugs are in New York; here's how to kill them

New York is home to more than 20 million people. And while our state is an iconic blend of cultural and geographic diversity, we are also on the front lines of emerging health care crises, including a growing number of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The Empire State currently hosts nearly a quarter of U.S. cases of one superbug, a deadly fungal infection caused by C.auris, a yeast that can attack the skin, wounds, and bloodstream. Last year, New York City hosted the first two confirmed U.S. cases of another superbug — ringworm caused by the mold T. indotineae, which quickly multiplied.

Superbugs — microbes (bacteria and fungi) that have evolved to resist drugs developed to treat them — are one of the greatest global threats to public health. But limited financial incentives discourage the scientific community and investors from delivering patients the cures they need.

A staggering new report from The Lancet predicts antibiotic resistance will kill nearly 40 million people worldwide between 2025 and 2050. That is almost double our state's population. And a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from July shows that the incidence of six hospital-onset, antibiotic-resistant infections increased by a combined 20% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022. We are hurtling toward a world with fewer and fewer effective antibiotics, which means common medical procedures and minor infections once easily treated could soon become deadly.

We desperately need new antibiotics to quell this crisis. But developing them is an arduous process, with few benefits to incentivize companies and investors to spend the time and capital — up to 15 years and more than $1 billion — it takes to bring a new antibiotic to market. After that, these antibiotics must undergo an expensive, multiyear FDA approval process. Even then, the path to remain financially viable is impossibly difficult.

Once these products reach the market, doctors make careful treatment decisions and only prescribe them when deemed crucial so that pathogens have fewer opportunities to mutate and become resistant. As a result, sales revenue from antimicrobials is often low, meaning developers and their investors struggle to recover even a tenth of their investment annually by the time the product reaches patients.

Meanwhile, the superbug threat keeps growing. With our current antimicrobials steadily waning in effectiveness, we need new ones — fast. We must chart a path forward that incentivizes companies and investors to continue developing new, life-saving antibiotics.

Fortunately, hope is on the horizon: a bipartisan bill in Congress known as the PASTEUR Act.

Under the PASTEUR Act, a developer would enter into a contract with the government to provide access to its new antimicrobial in federal health care programs such as Medicare, regardless of how many doses are used. This would give patients access to new treatments and drugmakers some financial stability, stimulating more antimicrobial research and development to the great benefit of public health in New York and across the globe.

The PASTEUR Act also holds significant potential for economic investment in New York, which supports more than 100,000 biopharma jobs, fosters the highest research and development spending by publicly traded companies, and saw the most bioscience-related venture capital investments in 2022. Although five New York congressional members have cosponsored the PASTEUR Act, the bill still requires further action from Congress.

We must exterminate deadly superbugs and repair our fractured market for antimicrobial drugs. Ensuring the passage of the PASTEUR Act will protect not only New Yorkers, but patients across the globe.

This guest essay reflects the view of Jennifer Hawks Bland, chief executive of NewYorkBIO.