As president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a physician of infectious diseases, I am greatly encouraged by the launch of the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X; see Nature http://doi.org/bp7x; 2016). Contrary to your implication, this public–private partnership is designed to foster antibiotic discovery as well as preclinical antibiotic development (see www.carb-x.org). Physicians who treat the increasing numbers of people with infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms know at first hand the urgent need for novel antibiotics.

Most pharmaceutical companies have been retreating from antibiotic research and development (R&D) over the past few decades because of economic, regulatory and scientific hurdles. Fresh incentives are needed to stimulate and support all stages of antibiotic R&D if new drugs are to be discovered and brought to market in a timely fashion. CARB-X can play an important part in this broader effort, which must also include other economic and regulatory incentives that are currently under consideration in the US Congress.