UK launches world-first ‘subscription’ model for antibiotic supply

The UK is set to become the first country in the world to pay drug companies a fixed fee for supplying antibiotics in an effort to tackle the growing global crisis over resistance to the drugs. The aim is to give companies a better incentive to develop new antibiotics, which would be held back to treat patients who really need them, while restraining overprescribing that leads microbes to develop drug resistance.