We are creating new versions of what we have already. When you hear something referred to, for example, as a "beta-lactam antibiotic", what that actually means is a more creative version of penicillin. We tack new functional groups onto antibiotics to try to outpace resistance mechanisms, but its a stalling tactic, not a solution.
New antibiotic classes are hard to find. You need to find compounds that are lethal to bacterial cells (but not our cells) that there's no pre-existing immunity to. That's an extremely tall order, and we've run out of easy sources for those compounds.
New antibiotic classes are hard to find. You need to find compounds that are lethal to bacterial cells (but not our cells) that there's no pre-existing immunity to. That's an extremely tall order, and we've run out of easy sources for those compounds.