Superbugs: Resistance rising, part 2
Discovery
BBC
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The rapid spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is already claiming lives and a far greater global crisis is on the horizon.
In this three part series for Discovery, reporter Roland Pease traces how we reached this point, uncovers the forces driving resistance ever faster, and meets the scientists racing to outpace evolving superbugs before our lifesaving medicines fail for good.
Episode 2 - The chemists' challenge. With all the low-hanging fruit in the antibiotic search space gone, chemists are having to work harder and be cleverer to top up the antibiotic pipeline. The chances of finding even one successful compound in a working life are low, but can new approaches like AI or genetics make the difference?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Their company's success helped build a nation. |
| 0:10.9 | The company is such a big part of Korea's economy. |
| 0:13.5 | But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants? |
| 0:17.2 | They often say, look, we built the nation. |
| 0:19.5 | And without us, South Korea as it exists today, |
| 0:22.6 | would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family |
| 0:28.3 | and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.1 | From a personal aspect, I had the wonderful opportunity back in 2007 of actually |
| 0:41.1 | meeting the very first child to take Linazolid ever. Steve Brickner is a medicinal chemist |
| 0:49.3 | who had succeeded in bringing an entirely new kind of antibiotic to market in the year 2000, though he'd already |
| 0:56.7 | seen its power to cure. |
| 0:58.8 | She was dying from a vancomycin-resistant endocracus infection. |
| 1:03.5 | You know, she was very seriously ill, and they knew that she wasn't going to be around, and |
| 1:08.1 | there were no clinical trials then. She took this drug |
| 1:11.1 | on a compassionate use basis. They made arrangements with the FDA and Upjohn to fly out, |
| 1:17.9 | you know, the drug in powder form. They didn't even know how to give it to her because they couldn't |
| 1:23.5 | get an IV in her. She was that sick. And this girl was two years old at the time she was treated with it, |
| 1:31.1 | but she recovered completely. |
| 1:33.4 | At the time I met her in 2007, she was 11 years old, wonderful young lady, |
| 1:40.1 | and she thanked us for saving her life. |
| 1:44.4 | And it was very... |
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