Nobel laureate Steitz and Senator Blumenthal stress urgency for developing new antibiotics

Yale Nobel laureate Thomas Steitz, co-founder of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc., joined Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) at Woolsey Hall to focus on the need to develop new antibiotics to combat deadly infections that have developed resistance to existing medications.  Steitz noted that bacterial resistance to many types of antibiotics has increased dramatically and leaves the country exposed to diseases like tuberculosis, once nearly eliminated from developing countries. Blumenthal said Congress must act soon to pass legislation that provides incentives to companies developing new forms of the antibiotics, which generally are not as profitable as other drugs and expensive to develop.