Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global battle currently leading to around 700,000 deaths each year, including 230,000 deaths due to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. But without an effective response to AMR, common infections could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050.1 
The World Health Organization has declared AMR as one of the top ten global public health threats, citing misuse and overuse of antimicrobials as the main drivers in the development of drug-resistant pathogens. Conditions with particularly high AMR rates are urinary tract infections, sepsis, sexually transmitted infections, and some forms of diarrhoea.2 
The Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) reports resistance to ciprofloxacin in different countries ranges from 8.4 to 92.9 per cent for Escherichia coli and from 4.1 to 79.4 per cent for Klebsiella pneumoniae.2 
K. pneumonia is also increasingly resistant to ‘last resort’ antibiotics (carbapenems), which is a problem since the bacteria is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and infections in neonates and intensive-care unit patients. Someone with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection has a 64 per cent greater risk of dying compared to a drug-sensitive infection. 
There has also been a rapid emergence globally of multi-drug resistant Neisseria gonorrhoea, meaning the STI is not responding to sulphonamides, penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides, fluoroquinolones or early generation cephalosporins. The only remaining monotherapy option for gonorrhoea in many countries is the injectable extended-spectrum cephalosporin (ESC) ceftriaxone.2