FORBES | Aided by modern humans’ mobility and by climate change, bacterial pathogens endanger everyone’s health. They are legion, varied, and constantly mutating. Pathogenic bacteria cause epidemics and pandemics. Bacteria mutate to become resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria spread in communities and healthcare settings. Discovery and development of new antibiotics are insufficiently incentivized, despite the good work of organizations like CARB-X. In this commentary, biochemist Louis Metzger IV argues that governments, industry, and academia must collaborate to bring new classes of antibiotics to the clinic.