Perspective: Pharmacokinetics of Beta lactam antibiotics: Clues from the past to help discover long acting oral drugs in the future.

Beta lactams represent perhaps the most important class of antibiotics yet discovered. However, despite many years of active research none of the currently approved drugs in this class combine oral activity with long duration of action. Recent devel-opments suggest that new beta lactam antibiotics with such a profile would have utility in the treatment of tuberculosis. Consequently the historical beta lactam pharmacokinetic data has been compiled and analysed to identify possible directions and drug discovery strategies aimed towards new beta lactam antibiotics with this profile.