Lack of incentives for the development of innovative antibiotics-analysis of market and time constraints

摘要

Currently, it is becoming alarmingly clear that pharmaceutical companies are continuously withdrawing from antibiotics research and that there is now a market failure. The future decline in the gross domestic product alone is now estimated in the trillions of US dollars. The predicted number of people who could die in 30 years from resistant germs is an urgent call for action. This paper aims to examine the situation on the basis of possible forms of organization and with the help of individual ideas of the principal-agent approach, a theory from economics that can be used to analyze problems between the principal and agent. The result demonstrates the urgent need for action by the state. The longer the alarming proportions of this development is not fully taken into account in the political decision-making process, the more drastic state measures and fewer available options for action there will be at a later point in time.