The Empty Pipeline

The Empty Pipeline

How did the Antibiotic Pipeline Run Dry?

Between 1970 and 2010, the development of new antibiotics slowed down dramatically. But why did the golden era of antibiotic R&D end - and do current narratives of a dry antibiotic pipeline provide the full picture? Funded by the Norwegian Research Council and based across Europe, our five international clusters are investigating this process.

Find out more about our project's aims, clusters, and team members.

A picture of a syringe injecting substance into prism with rainbow coloured substances coming out of the other end. A molecule in the form of a key appears in the sky.

Searching for new antibiotics at Bayer

University of Oslo

Robert Thom's "The Era of Antibiotics" - a ca. 1952 oil painting depicting antibiotic discovery in a small laboratory with a female researcher looking at petri dishes - a picture of Alexander Fleming looking at her. Through a glass window one can see a white clothed male worker checking on rows of large deep fermentation tanks producing antibiotics.

Cultures & Codes

UCD Dublin

Black and white photograph of female researcher engaged in antimicrobial screening while working at a flow hood.

Women, Gender and Microbiology

CSIC Madrid

Picture of a pipeline running across a dried out landscape.

Dry Pipeline and Global Policy

University of Strasbourg

Picture of a petri dish with different cultures marked with a permanent marker.

Tricky targets: role of target cultures and molecules for the antimicrobial R&D

University of Copenhagen

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