Question: How long does it take to create an antibiotic and are any made of a finite resource?

Robert Hampson answered on 20 Nov 2014:

Do you mean how long does it take to invent an antibiotic or How long does it take to manufacture an antibiotic?

Invention can take 15-20 years from finding a promising molecule to getting a new drug.

Manufacture time depends on how the antibiotic is made. Some antibiotics are chemically synthesised, while others are made by biological organisms. A new potential antibiotic called Planosporicin is produced by a soil bacteria called Planomonospora alba is going to be tested against MRSA and VRE. It was recently discovered that the presence of the antibiotic actually acts as a signal to produce more of the antibiotic, this will allow the team producing the antibiotic to produce more of the potential drug in less time. This will allow testing to happen faster than it otherwise would have. Sometimes bacteria have to be grown for days or weeks before there is enough antibiotic to harvest the cells.

If the antibiotics are made from bacteria, then the bacteria are generally fed things that would be considered renewable resources. If they are chemically synthesised then a lot of laboratory chemicals originate with fossil fuels which are obviously considered to be a finite resource.