Over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors who respond to patients’ demands has raised the drug resistance of harmful bacteria. Drug-resistant bacteria can make routine surgery and minor cuts fatal if infections take hold. We could introduce penalties for doctors who over-prescribe, but this would not be enough. Given the scale and escalation of antibiotic resistance, we need to discover a new class of antibiotics. In the past, pharmaceutical companies have not regarded research on antibiotics as potentially profitable. Governments should give financial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to intensify work on finding new classes of antibiotics which could be kept in reserve for emergencies such as a global epidemic. This would make it more attractive for pharmaceutical companies to carry out the necessary research.