The development of new technologies for antibiotic discovery and production will benefit European SMEs in the biotechnology sector whose remit is to provide new antibiotics. Application of these new genomics-based procedures and technologies for discovery and exploitation of natural products can provide a platform for a renaissance in drug discovery after 15 years of stagnation in this area. The pharmaceutical world market is estimated to amount to 506 billion € in 2004.

Antibiotics represent one of the principal and indispensable groups of pharmaceuticals. Hence the project can help to stimulate significant growth of European biotechnology SMEs. In addition, new antimicrobials discovered in the course of the project can potentially help alleviate the current crisis in treatment of multiple drug-resistant pathogens. New antibiotics can provide treatments of last resort for life-threatening diseases such as tuberculosis and nosocomial infections.

The efficacy of new antimicrobials will depend on subsequent rigorous testing for toxicity and side effects. However, even in the case of a product with significant side effects, the compound can provide a lead for the subsequent development of safe but effective derivatives, either by chemical modification or by engineering biosynthetic modifications. Thus, there is the potential for these new antibiotics to make a major impact on healthcare in the EU, both at the level of the individual patient and also on healthcare budgets by reducing treatment times in hospitals.

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