Tribulations of trials for antibacterial drugs: interview with Brad Spellberg

Brad Spellberg is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and is based at the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor- University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. His research is diverse, ranging from NIH-funded basic immunology and vaccinology to pure clinical and outcomes research. He is the co-founder and Medical Director of Clinical Research Solutions, a clinical trial unit at his research institute. He is also a Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and is a member of the IDSA’s Antimicrobial Availability Task Force, formed to bring attention to the problems of increasing drug resistance and decreasing new antibiotics. His research regarding new drug development has been a cornerstone of the IDSA’s white paper, ‘Bad Bugs, No Drugs’, and has been cited extensively in medical literature and on Capitol Hill. He has lead authored numerous IDSA position papers and review article...