Vol.65 No.2 March 2017
An overview of antibacterial agents in Japan: past, present, and future
Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy, Division of Drug Development and Regulatory Science, 1-5-30 Shiba-koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
The Japanese Society of Chemotherapy established a committee in 2013, to promote innovative development of novel antibacterial agents against global threats of resistant infections. The committee investigates promotive plan under the close collaboration among academia, government and industry. Japan took a leading position in providing novel antibacterial agents globally during the period of the 1980s-1990s. However, due to the global stagnation in development of antibacterial agents, almost all major companies left the front line of R & D for antibacterial agents, and the current situation is unpromising for the creation of novel antibacterial agents active against resistant infections.
To overcome such stagnation, the Japanese government set up a task force, the Ministerial Council on the Response to Infectious Diseases that Pose a Threat to Global Society. From the Council the "Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Measures Action Plan" was published in April 2016, and various regulatory policies have been concretized.
Meanwhile, taking it as an opportunity that Distinguished Emeritus Professor Satoshi Omura of Kitasato University won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 through R & D on natural antimicrobial agents for infectious diseases, there is once again an increasing momentum to invent novel antibacterial agents in Japan.
From an overview of the historical background of the development and current situation of antibacterial agents in Japan, and an analysis of the situation and regulatory policies of foreign countries, domestic trends of antibacterial development in the future are discussed in this review article.
Key word
antibacterial agent, antimicrobial resistance, multidrug resistance
Received
October 18, 2016
Accepted
November 17, 2016
Jpn. J. Chemother. 65 (2): 149-167, 2017
