By: Amanjeet Singh and Samriddhi Gupte

When India announced its first home-grown antibiotic Nafithromycin last November, it was touted as a breakthrough in the country’s fight against deadly superbugs. However, medical experts warn that creating new drugs is not enough – we need smarter ways to introduce them into healthcare systems to prevent antibiotics from becoming resistant too quickly.

This call for systematic drug introduction gains new urgency with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization’s (CDSCO) releasing diagnostic validation guidelines, highlighting the need for comprehensive approaches deal with silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance.

To safeguard modern medicine and prevent deaths, India must protect both existing and new antibiotic molecules by prolonging their life cycle through sustainable entry strategies,” says Dr Ranga Reddy Burri, Honorary Professor at the University of Hyderabad and President of the Infection Control Academy of India.

The challenge is stark: India lost 300,000 people to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2019 alone. While the country’s robust pharmaceutical industry makes antibiotics affordable and accessible, this blessing often becomes a curse. A 2014 Mumbai........

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