Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a serious and growing threat to human and animal health worldwide. In the EU alone, AMR is responsible for some 25 000 deaths every year, and the annual treatment and social costs have been estimated at €1.5 billion. Meanwhile, new forms of resistance continue to develop and spread, leaving clinicians with few weapons to bring infections under control. Yet despite the recognised need for new antibiotics, the reality is that only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to the market in the last three decades.