Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health crisis, emphasizing the urgent need for new antibiotics. Despite high costs and long development timelines, several novel antibiotics were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2022 and 2025. This review summarizes the antibiotic discovery process, the FDA approval pipeline, and highlights key novel agents including Voquezna, Xacduro, Orlynvah, Zevtera, Exblifep, and Blujepa. These therapies employ diverse strategies to achieve selective toxicity, such as inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, β-lactamase activity, and DNA replication, as well as modulation of host-pathogen environments, while limiting damage to host tissues. This review highlights their mechanisms of action, approved clinical indications, and safety profiles, and evaluates their clinical relevance in treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens. Lastly, we discuss the implications of these recent approvals for the future of antibiotic development and emphasize the continued need for sustained investment and innovation to address the growing AMR crisis.
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Shahrokhi et al. (2026) studied this question.
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