American Pharm Exec Magazine surveyed leading investment experts about the most important areas of drug development in 2019. Among the top 10 trends identified by the experts were the use of computer-aided drug design algorithms, further exploration of cancer immunotherapy, the development of methods for delivering drugs across the blood-brain barrier, the search for antibiotics with new mechanisms of action, and more.

Among the top 10 trends of 2019, experts named the development of phage therapy as a means of treating antibiotic-resistant infections.

After the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, humanity believed it was forever immune to dangerous infectious diseases. However, excessive and irrational use of antibiotics has led to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria. As a result, medicine is increasingly confronted with bacterial strains resistant to several, and sometimes all, known antibacterial agents. Phage therapy is based on the use of bacteria's natural enemies—viruses. Therefore, treating infections with phages is a victory over pathogens at their own game. Clinical trials of phage therapy as a treatment for bacterial infections are underway in the United States and other Western countries. Careful study of the molecular biology of phages, particularly using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome modification system, will facilitate the development of highly specific, effective drugs against infectious diseases.

In the US, phage preparations for preventing microbial contamination of food products in production have received FDA approval.

Dzherelo: http://www.pharmexec.com/top-10-drug-discovery-trends-watch-2019