NEW YORK TIMES | At a time when germs are growing more resistant to common antibiotics, Big Pharma has fled the antibiotics field and now start-ups are going belly up, threatening to stifle the development of new drugs. Experts say the grim financial outlook for the few companies still committed to antibiotic research is driving away investors and threatening to strangle the development of new lifesaving drugs at a time when they are urgently needed. The industry faces another challenge: doctors have become reluctant to prescribe the newest medications, limiting the ability of companies to recoup their investment. And in their drive to save money, many hospital pharmacies will dispense cheaper generics even when a newer drug is far superior. “You’d never tell a cancer patient ‘Why don’t you try a 1950s drug first and if doesn’t work, we’ll move on to one from the 1980s,” said Kevin Outterson, the executive director of CARB-X, a government-funded nonprofit that provides grants to companies working on antimicrobial resistance. “We do this with antibiotics and it’s really having an adverse effect on patients and the marketplace.”