From a research perspective, first of all, as you know, there are still a lot of questions regarding the passage of resistant genes from bacteria that infect animals and the bacteria that infect man, the relationship between the agricultural use and the medical use of antibiotics. More and more evidence, as you know, is pointing to the fact that there is a connection, and that there's clearly a role for the use of antibiotics, not only in humans but also in agriculture. That's the first thing.
One of the major problems, as you know, is that the business model for antibiotics is very different than the business model for other drugs. Antibiotics are not expensive and they are not given for a long time, even though patients often don't take them for the full 10 days, unfortunately. The treatment by and large is not very expensive. From a manufacturing standpoint, the usual business model of making antibiotics is not working as it does for other drugs, because they're cheap, people don't take them for a long time, and they are cured.
We're facing a real problem here. Do you know how many antibiotics there are in the world's pipeline right now for all the pharmas that are being trialled? It's nine new antibiotics. You can imagine that the incentive for pharmas to develop antibiotics is not there, because if you develop one, it means essentially that you have to develop one that won't be used, that we will keep in reserve in case we have a bug that's really resistant to absolutely everything else.
From a sales perspective, it's not great. We really have to do research on changing the model system and looking at new ways of developing drugs, ways that are very different. That's another area of research that will have a very profound influence on the way we treat both animals and humans.