Many approaches are used to discover new antibiotic compounds, one of the most widespread being the chemical modification of known antibiotics. This type of discovery has been so important in the development of new antibiotics that most antibiotics used today belong to the same chemical classes as antibiotics discovered in the 1950s and 1960s. Even though the discovery of new classes of antibiotics is urgently needed, the chemical modification of antibiotics in known classes is still widely used to discover new antibiotics, resulting in a great number of compounds in the discovery and clinical pipeline that belong to existing classes. In this scenario, the present article presents an overview of the R&D pipeline of new antibiotics in known classes of antibiotics, from discovery to clinical trial, in order to map out the technological trends in this type of antibiotic R&D, aiming to identify the chemical classes attracting most interest, their spectrum of activity, and the new subclasses under development. The result of the study shows that the new antibiotics in the pipeline belong to the following chemical classes: quinolones, aminoglycosides, macrolides, oxazolidinones, tetracyclines, pleuromutilins, beta-lactams, lipoglycopeptides, polymyxins and cyclic lipopeptides.

Mpox disease was reported in 110 countries since May 2022, with 88,026 cases and 148 deaths by 21 June 2023. Although some drugs were already approved for Mpox treatment, the available smallpox vac...

This article examines the effects of uncertainty about the essentiality of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) in a purely implementing jurisdiction such as Brazil. Starting from the empirically supported finding that no Brazilian company figures among the main holders of SEPs related to the 5G standard — characterizing what is termed the innovation paradox — the article draws on Schuett and Wipusanawan’s (2025) informational asymmetry model and Zheng’s (2024) comparative jurisdictional analysis to argue that essentiality uncertainty, arising from the self-declaration system without institutional verification, produces more severe asymmetric effects in purely implementing jurisdictions. It artificially raises the costs of access to standardized technology and creates structural barriers to entry for small and medium-sized enterprises. The article analyzes Brazil’s institutional framework — comprising the INPI, CADE, and the Judiciary — identifying structural limitations that constrain the effectiveness of available instruments. It concludes that reducing opacity about essentiality is a public policy imperative, and that semi-automatic AI-based screening tools, combined with deepened CADE engagement on SEP/FRAND issues, represent promising and proportionate pathways given existing institutional capacities.