Despite ongoing concern over antibiotic resistance, a new report finds there are fewer antibacterial medicines in clinical pipelines than just two years ago and relatively few qualify as innovative, suggesting the majority of treatments would be insufficient to tackle the fast-growing public health threat.

Specifically, the number of antibacterial medicines under development fell to 90 this year from 97 in 2023; of these, just 15 were deemed innovative. Moreover, there was insufficient data to confirm that 10 of those innovative agents could combat cross-resistance, which is a way of saying that resistance to one antibacterial could reduce the effectiveness of another treatment.

There are also gaps in some areas, such as pediatric formulations, oral treatments for outpatient use, and sol

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