This story explores how a class of drugs once thought to be useless against tuberculosis may the best hope against drug resistant versions of the infection. The feature follows the history of the drug’s use against tuberculosis from the culture dish to dozens of patient case studies, and ultimately into a phase I trial. It turns out the natural insensitivity of tuberculosis to penicillin-like drugs called beta-lactams can be overcome by another group of antibiotics. This opens beta-lactams as a new class of antibiotics in the fight against drug resistant tuberculosis and turns over 50 years of research attesting to their uselessness.
