Pfiz­er bets on Spero can­di­date, wad­ing deep­er along­side GSK and Roche in­to aban­doned an­tibi­ot­ic mar­ket

Over the last year, Pfiz­er has been do­ing some­thing strange for a large phar­ma com­pa­ny op­er­at­ing in the third decade of the 21st cen­tu­ry: In­vest­ing in an­tibi­otics.

First, they pledged $100 mil­lion for Big Phar­ma’s new an­tibi­ot­ic re­sis­tance fund. Then they scooped up a tiny vir­tu­al an­tibi­ot­ic start­up from one of the founders of Tetraphase, a biotech that sold it­self just a year ago. And then two months ago, they stepped up to buy out Am­plyx and their an­ti-fun­gal drug, bet­ting that they can make a dent in a sep­a­rate but re­lat­ed in­fec­tious dis­ease cri­sis.

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