Just imagine life without antibiotics. It would be like it was 100 years ago, when pneumonia and tuberculosis were the most frequent causes of death, and the risk of infection turned a simple appendectomy into a dangerous operation. Luckily we do have antibiotics. However, they are becoming increasingly ineffective. Doctors are more and more frequently confronted with infections they can't do anything about because the bacteria have become resistant. This has dire consequences for patients. Many end up living with a chronic infection for years on end, some are forced to become amputees and yet others succumb to the infections. The crisis affects people in both industrialized and developing countries. In the US and the UK, the bug Staphylococcus aureus is wreaking havoc. Forty to fifty per cent of infections that people contract in hospitals are resistant to more than one antibiotic. The developing countries are groaning under the burden of tuberculosis, which claims the lives of 2 million victims throughout the world every year. The increase in multiresistant TB is especially alarming. Treating it costs 100 times more than treating the regular form, making a cure unaffordable for many people in impoverished countries. And these are only two examples. Despite this, many pharmaceutical companies have stopped developing antibiotics. They see the financial risk as too big and potential profits too skimpy. This has led to very few new drugs for fighting bacterial infections being launched in recent years. A survey of 11 large pharmaceutical companies revealed that of 400 substances they were developing, only 5 were antibacterial drugs. What can be done about the resistance crisis? One thing is needed for sure: new drugs.