NATURE REVIEWS DRUG DISCOVERY | Much of modern medicine would not be possible without effective antibiotics, but the rise of antibiotic resistance is inevitable. We need to spend more money on antibiotic R&D to address this challenge, but we can also spend smarter, by encouraging data sharing, especially from failed projects. This will help every antibiotic research team learn from the work of others, instead of reinventing the wheel. More widespread data sharing, such as the recent joint data contribution from Merck and Kyorin to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ SPARK platform, has a key role.The opinion piece was co-authored by Kevin Outterson (CARB-X), Zak Zimmerman (Forge) and Kevin Krause (formerly Achaogen).