At long last, public awareness is increasing of the medical catastrophe facing us all through resistance to antibiotics, described recently as “a return to the dark ages of medicine”.

For the last 30 years, there has been virtually no new antibiotics developed and the immediate future looks bleak as the development time for a new antibiotic class is estimated to be at least 20 years, with no certainty of success.

To plug this gap, a new charity, Antibiotic Research UK, has been formed. It aims to develop antibiotic resistance breakers to enable existing antibiotics to work again. The breakers will be drawn from existing drugs. The goal is to bring one new antibiotic therapy into clinical use by 2020. This would give a “breathing space” of time, for work to be undertaken on new classes of antibiotic as well as finding new resistance breakers. Such a chain of discovery and subsequent resistance will remain with us into the future.

Antibiotic Research UK was created from a network of universities and pharmaceutical companies. This network brings together a huge intellectual power base to try to avert what has been described as a “forthcoming medical Armageddon”.

The charity has to raise £30m for research over the next five years. In the context of the problem facing the entire population, it is hoped people feel encouraged to support this vital work.

The charity’s website under Antibiotic Research UK gives details how donations can be made.

Ashley Burgess, Thornton-le-Dale, chairman of trustees of Antibiotic Research UK