Nationalised drug companies may be needed to 'fix antibiotics market'

UK's superbug tsar Lord Jim O'Neill compares idea to way banks were taken over after 2008 financial crash

Nationalised or state-run "utility" drug companies may be the only answer to the lack of investment in new antibiotics, former banker and superbug tsar Lord Jim O'Neill has suggested.

The drastic measure would be intended to ensure that the development and production of new antibiotics were not at the mercy of capitalist market forces - which may seem at odds with O'Neill's background as a chief economist at global banking giants Goldman Sachs.