Resistance Report
The superbugs are winning. We keep score.
Automated antimicrobial resistance surveillance journalism — tracking which bacteria are beating which drugs, where in the world resistance is surging, what's coming through the antibiotic pipeline, and what the latest research actually means for your life.
Niche Explored
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance, superbug tracking, antibiotic pipeline monitoring — the “silent pandemic” that kills 4.95M people/year and is accelerating.
Existing Competition
- AMR.Solutions (Dr. John Rex) — newsletter-only, no data viz, no automation, expert-audience only. Bi-weekly. Text-heavy.
- AMR Insights (disAMR) — €60/year subscription newsletter, LMIC-focused, no public site with explorable data.
- Superbug Bulletin (Working to Fight AMR) — quarterly PDF-style, advocacy-focused, not data-driven.
- Nature’s Pharmacy (Substack) — general antibiotic content, no surveillance data.
- ResistanceMap (One Health Trust/CDDEP) — interactive tool but raw data visualization, no editorial, no narrative, no newsletter, no content strategy. Think “government dashboard” not “media channel.”
- WHO GLASS Dashboard — official surveillance dashboard. Functional but zero editorial layer, ugly, no story-telling.
- GAPS IDENTIFIED:
- Nobody is building a beautiful, automated, narrative-driven site that translates raw AMR data into compelling stories
- No site combines pipeline tracking + resistance trends + new research into a single weekly digest
- No automated content generation pipeline exists in this space
- The “data dashboard” exists but the “data journalism” layer does not
- Massive gap between expert newsletters (€60/year) and general public understanding
Data Sources Found
Surveillance Data
- WHO GLASS Dashboard — https://worldhealthorg.shinyapps.io/glass-dashboard/ — Global AMR+AMU data by country, pathogen, antibiotic. Updated annually with quarterly supplements. GitHub repo with analytical code: https://github.com/GlobalAMR/GLASS-2025
- ResistanceMap — https://resistancemap.cddep.org/ — Global antibiotic resistance rates + usage data. Browsable by country, pathogen, antibiotic class. Interactive maps.
- CDC NARMS — https://www.cdc.gov/narms/ — US foodborne pathogen resistance data, downloadable.
- ECDC EARS-Net — European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network — via TESSy system, annual reports downloadable.
Genomic/Molecular Data
- CARD (Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database) — https://card.mcmaster.ca/ — 8,582 ontology terms, 6,442 reference sequences, 4,480 SNPs, 3,354 publications. Downloadable. API at https://card.mcmaster.ca/download/
- BV-BRC (formerly PATRIC) — https://patricbrc.org/api/doc/ — Full REST API for pathogen data, AMR gene data, genomics. Free. MIT license.
Research & Papers
- PubMed E-utilities API — https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ — Free, no key needed. Search 35M+ papers. Can query “antimicrobial resistance” weekly for new publications.
- Nature RSS Feeds — https://feeds.nature.com/subjects/antimicrobial-resistance — Real-time new research alerts.
- bioRxiv/medRxiv API — Preprints, often weeks ahead of publication.
Drug Pipeline
- ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API — https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/ — Free, no key. Search 500K+ trials. Filter by “antibiotic” or “antimicrobial” conditions.
- CARB-X Pipeline — https://carb-x.org/ — Funded projects, quarterly pipeline PDFs.
- TheraRadar — https://theraradar.com/companies/us-antibiotics/ — Commercial tracker of US antibiotics pipeline (can scrape public data).
- FDA Drug Approvals — https://api.fda.gov/ — openFDA API, free, JSON.
News & Alerts
- CDC Newsroom RSS — Antimicrobial resistance press releases
- WHO News RSS — AMR-related news
- Google Scholar Alerts — Configurable for AMR topics
SEO Analysis
- Keywords:
- “antibiotic resistance” — very high volume, high competition
- “superbug” — high volume, medium competition (mostly news sites)
- “antibiotic resistance by country” — medium volume, LOW competition (data gap!)
- “new antibiotics in development” — medium volume, LOW competition
- “MRSA resistance rates” — medium volume, low competition
- “last resort antibiotics” — growing search, low competition
- “colistin resistance” — niche but growing, very low competition
- “antibiotic pipeline tracker” — near zero competition, growing interest
- “drug resistant bacteria list” — medium volume, low competition
- SEO Opportunity: MASSIVE. The informational queries (“what bacteria are resistant to which antibiotics”, “antibiotic resistance by country”, “new antibiotics 2026”) have demand but the current results are either WHO PDFs, CDC pages, or scattered news articles. No single beautiful, updated, comprehensive site exists.
Communities
- r/microbiology — 482K members, AMR posts regularly get 1K+ upvotes
- r/medicine — 650K+ members, frequent AMR discussions
- r/science — AMR papers go viral (5K+ upvotes for recent 5000-year-old resistant bacterium post)
- r/InfectiousDisease — niche but engaged
- Twitter/X #AMR — active community of researchers, policy makers, pharma watchers
- Science Twitter — AMR studies regularly go viral
- Telegram — Several AMR alert channels exist but none are data-rich
Image/Graphic Feasibility
- Excellent. This niche is perfect for automated data visualization:
- World maps colored by resistance rates (choropleth maps) — auto-generatable from GLASS data
- Pathogen “scorecards” showing resistance to each antibiotic class — table/infographic format
- Pipeline tracker timelines — clinical trial phases as a visual pipeline
- Trend charts — resistance rate changes over time by country/pathogen
- “Bug vs Drug” matchup graphics — which drugs still work against which pathogens
- Molecular structure illustrations for new antibiotics (can use AI image generation)
- Heat maps of resistance gene prevalence from CARD data
- AI image generation for hero images: microscopy-style illustrations of bacteria, dramatic science visuals
Market Signals
- CDC 2025 report: “sharp rise in dangerous drug-resistant bacteria” — 2.8M+ resistant infections/year in US alone
- WHO: AMR is a “top 10 global public health threat”
- The Lancet study (2022, still most-cited): 4.95M deaths associated with AMR in 2019
- AMR Insights charges €60/year — proves willingness to pay
- WHO GLASS 2025 report downloads: likely 100K+ (free PDF)
- AMR content goes viral on Reddit regularly
- Google search volume for “superbug” spikes with every CDC/WHO report
Sources
- https://worldhealthorg.shinyapps.io/glass-dashboard/
- https://card.mcmaster.ca/
- https://patricbrc.org/api/doc/
- https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/
- https://resistancemap.cddep.org/
- https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-resistance/data-research/facts-stats/
- https://feeds.nature.com/subjects/antimicrobial-resistance
- https://amr.solutions/
- https://www.amr-insights.eu/product/amr-news/
- https://github.com/GlobalAMR/GLASS-2025
- https://dev.to/0012303/pubmed-has-a-free-api-search-35m-medical-papers-without-scraping-no-key-2me
- https://dev.to/0012303/clinicaltrialsgov-has-a-free-api-search-500k-trials-in-python-18l1
- https://carb-x.org/
- https://theraradar.com/companies/us-antibiotics/