Pipeline of new drugs to fight superbugs is ‘worryingly thin’, experts warn
The pipeline of new drugs to fight superbugs remains “worryingly thin” and has shrunk by 35% in the last five years, experts have warned, predicting the annual number of deaths linked to drug-resistant infections globally will double to 8 million by 2050.The number of projects from large pharma companies has shrunk by 35% over the past five years, from 92 to 60 medicines in development, according to a report from the Access to Medicine Foundation (AMF), a Netherlands-based non-profit group, and the Wellcome Trust.“Overall, however, the R&D pipeline remains worryingly thin, and industry investment has lost momentum,” said Jayasree K Iyer, the chief executive of AMF.She described drug resistance as the biggest single threat to healthcare worldwide.More than 1 million people die each year directly from drug resistant infections but they contribute to 4 million deaths worldwide a year.
Both figures are forecast to double by 2050 – to nearly 2 million and more than 8 million respectively.The UK’s GSK is leading the way in antimicrobial resistance research and development (R&D) with 30 projects and is one of just three big pharma companies that continue to invest in this area, the report found.The other two big players are Japan’s Shionogi and Otsuka, while the US drugmaker Pfizer, which was joint first with GSK in 2021, has fallen back.Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, is not included in the ranking because it does not have an antibiotic portfolio, as infectious diseases has never been its focus.The report assesses the efforts of 25 companies, including seven large research-based firms, 10 generic medicine manufacturers and eight smaller drug developers, or biotechs.
Iyer said three recently approved antibiotics and seven other promising medicines in late-stage development showed “it is possible to tilt the battle against superbugs in humanity’s favour”.In December, the US health regulator approved the Californian biotech Innoviva’s zoliflodacin (branded as Nuzolvence) to treat gonorrhea, as well as GSK’s gepotidacin (sold as Blujepa) for uncomplicated urinary tract infections and urogenital gonorrhea.They are the first antibiotics developed to treat these diseases in decades.People in low- and middle-income countries, where infectious diseases hit hardest, are most vulnerable to drug-resistant superbugs.“There is no time to lose,” the AMF said.
Hospitals across the world have recorded an alarming rise in common infections that are resistant to antibiotics.One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments in 2023, with more than 40% of antibiotics losing potency against common blood, gut, urinary tract and sexually transmitted infections between 2018 and 2023, according to the World Health Organization.
From press release … to scrap metal site: the Essex ‘supercomputer’ that’s still a scaffolding yard
The press releases announcing a gleaming supercomputer on the outskirts of north London depict a glass and concrete building, rising from a tree-lined street. Accompanied by images of glowing blue robot faces, it looks like the centre of a technological revolution.By the end of this year, that artist’s impression is supposed to be a reality.But when the Guardian visited last month, there was no sign of it. Instead, the four-acre plot in Loughton was a depot stacked with pylons and scrap metal under a corrugated roof, while flatbed lorries drove in and out stacked with poles
Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’
Exclusive: Rented datacentres and ‘supercomputer’ site that’s still a scaffolding yard raise questions for Starmer’s push to ‘mainline AI into veins of economy’From press release … to scrap metal site: the Essex supercomputer that’s still a scaffolding yardA multibillion-pound drive to “mainline AI into the veins” of the British economy is riddled with “phantom investments” and shaky accounting, a Guardian investigation has found.Since 2024, successive Conservative and Labour governments have proclaimed massive deals to build new datacentres, create thousands of jobs and construct a supercomputer.The investments – led by two firms linked to AI giant Nvidia - have been touted as a cornerstone of the government’s promise to use tech to turbocharge the economy.On Monday, former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg and former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were announced as new board members at one of the firms, NScale. Nscale also said it had raised a $2bn funding round, sending its valuation soaring to $14
OpenAI delays ‘adult mode’ for ChatGPT to focus on work of higher priority
OpenAI is delaying the launch of “adult mode” for ChatGPT after admitting it had more pressing priorities than introducing erotica on its signature artificial intelligence product.The startup’s chief executive, Sam Altman, had announced last year that OpenAI would allow adult content as it rolled out age checking.However, the company has now said the plan has been delayed in favour of more immediate requirements such as improving ChatGPT’s performance.“We’re pushing out the launch of adult mode so we can focus on work that is a higher priority for more users right now, including gains in intelligence, personality improvements, personalisation, and making the experience more proactive,” said OpenAI, which has more than 900 million users of ChatGPT. “We still believe in the principle of treating adults like adults, but getting the experience right will take more time
Liverpool and Manchester United complain to X over ‘sickening’ Grok AI posts
Liverpool and Manchester United have complained to Elon Musk’s X after the Grok AI feature made offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters.The posts were generated when users asked the AI tool to make hateful posts about the two football teams.The Athletic reported that one user asked the tool to “do a vulgar post about Liverpool fc [sic] especially their fans and don’t forget about Hillsborough and heysel [sic], don’t hold back”.Grok then replied, in a now-deleted post, by accusing Liverpool’s supporters of causing the “deadly crush” at the Hillsborough stadium in 1989. A 2016 inquest ruled the 96 people who died were unlawfully killed and a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services contributed to their deaths
How AI firm Anthropic wound up in the Pentagon’s crosshairs
Until recently, Anthropic was one of the quieter names in the artificial intelligence boom. Despite being valued at about $350bn, it rarely generated the flashy headlines or public backlash associated with Sam Altman’s OpenAI or Elon Musk’s xAI. Its CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei was an industry fixture but hardly a household name outside of Silicon Valley, and its chatbot Claude lagged in popularity behind ChatGPT.That perception has shifted as Anthropic has become the central actor in a high-profile fight with the Department of Defense over the company’s refusal to allow Claude to be used for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems that can kill people without human input. Amid tense negotiations, the AI firm rejected a Pentagon deadline for a deal last week, in a move that led Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to accuse Anthropic of “arrogance and betrayal” of its home country while demanding that any companies that work with the US government cease all business with the AI firm
AI allows hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, study finds
AI has made it vastly easier for malicious hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, a new study has warned.In most test scenarios, large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind platforms such as ChatGPT – successfully matched anonymous online users with their actual identities on other platforms, based on the information they posted.The AI researchers Simon Lermen and Daniel Paleka said LLMs make it cost effective to perform sophisticated privacy attacks, forcing a “fundamental reassessment of what can be considered private online”.In their experiment, the researchers fed anonymous accounts into an AI, and got it to scrape all the information it could. They gave a hypothetical example of a user talking about struggling at school, and walking their dog Biscuit through a “Dolores park”
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