New antibiotics and antivirals

Discovering drugs that beat resistant bacteria and new viruses.

China leads new antibiotics and antivirals research, with 30.3% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; the United States is second with 15.3%.

Added 14 October 2026. Its top papers were checked for relevance by AI, but its keywords and topic list have not yet been reviewed by hand.

FirstChina30.3%

SecondUnited States15.3%

2.0×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Highlight a country

Standings

1CNChina30.3%2USUnited States15.3%3INIndia4.7%4ITItaly4.2%5–6BRBrazil2.8%5–6AUAustralia2.7%7GBUnited Kingdom2.5%8–9DEGermany2.3%8–9IRIran2.2%10CACanada2.1%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 811 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-area	Papers	First	Second	Third
Antimicrobial peptides	315	CNChina36.8%	USUnited States7.7%	INIndia5.7%
AI and computational drug discovery (incl. docking)	144	CNChina29.0%	USUnited States19.3%	INIndia4.0%
COVID-19 antiviral drugs (protease and polymerase inhibitors)	84	USUnited States30.3%	CNChina27.6%	CACanada4.3%
Resistance mechanisms, epidemiology and clinical treatment	83	CNChina20.0%	USUnited States11.3%	ITItaly8.8%
New antibiotic classes and natural-product discovery	69	USUnited States20.8%	CNChina16.1%	INIndia6.9%
Alternative antibacterials (nanomaterials, metals, phages)	45	CNChina27.3%	AUAustralia12.4%	USUnited States12.3%
SARS-CoV-2 biology, variants and antibody escape	31	USUnited States35.3%	CNChina28.5%	JPJapan12.1%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change

CNChina 27.1%35.1%+8.0 pts

USUnited States 18.6%10.4%−8.2 pts

INIndia 4.2%5.6%+1.4 pts

ITItaly 6.1%1.3%−4.8 pts

BRBrazil 2.5%3.2%+0.7 pts

AUAustralia 2.3%3.3%+1.0 pts

GBUnited Kingdom 3.1%1.6%−1.5 pts

DEGermany 2.3%2.3%+0.0 pts

Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 485 papers in 2021–2023, 326 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (1,335), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

CNChina33.0%of 2026 papers have an author here
USUnited States12.5%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia12.3%of 2026 papers have an author here
BRBrazil5.8%of 2026 papers have an author here
ITItaly4.9%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess

CNChina 46.6%26.7%+19.9

USUnited States 23.7%16.0%+7.7

INIndia 24.4%11.8%+12.6

ITItaly 9.0%4.8%+4.2

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

1CNNortheast Agricultural University2.2%
2USUniversity of Pennsylvania1.5%
3CNZhejiang University1.0%
4CNShandong University0.9%
5CNYangzhou University0.7%
6CNChinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College0.7%
7BRUniversidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)0.7%
8CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab0.7%
9CNChina Pharmaceutical University0.6%
10SAKing Abdulaziz University0.6%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

Sector	All	CN	US	IN
Universities	77.7%	80.8%	77.0%	80.0%
Research facilities	10.0%	6.5%	6.1%	12.0%
Hospitals	6.6%	7.5%	11.0%	0.8%
Government labs	3.3%	4.5%	0.8%	7.2%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

36.3% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNUSChina with United States38
AUCNAustralia with China16
CNGBChina with United Kingdom16
DEUSGermany with United States15
CNMOChina with Macao14

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

Antibiotic resistance in microbes: History, mechanisms, therapeutic strategies and future prospects
Journal of Infection and Public Health, 2021BDHUINPK
1,315citations
Altered TMPRSS2 usage by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron impacts infectivity and fusogenicity
Nature, 2022ECGBINJPUS
1,142citations
Antimicrobial peptides: mechanism of action, activity and clinical potential
Military Medical Research, 2021AUCNUS
1,068citations
European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) guidelines for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli (endorsed by European society of intensive care medicine)
Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2021BECHCNDEESFR
1,060citations
Antibiotic resistance: The challenges and some emerging strategies for tackling a global menace
Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis, 2022IQIRNG
986citations

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"antibiotic discovery" OR "novel antibiotic" OR "new antibiotic" OR "antimicrobial peptide" OR "antiviral drug" OR "broad-spectrum antiviral"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities; Computational Drug Discovery Methods; Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria; Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis; Antimicrobial agents and applications; SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 8,093
In the top 10%: 811
In the top 1%: 83
Countries with credit: 82
Credit with no known country: 2.7%

Every one of the 1,000 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 41 were left out as not about new antibiotics and antivirals

The most cited of those left out:

ACE2 Expression in Kidney and Testis May Cause Kidney and Testis Infection in COVID-19 Patients543 citations
Design of target specific peptide inhibitors using generative deep learning and molecular dynamics simulations320 citations
Antiviral surfaces and coatings and their mechanisms of action265 citations
The neutrophil antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin promotes Th17 differentiation151 citations
SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein binds host mRNAs and attenuates stress granules to impair host stress response139 citations
Rational Molecular Editing: A New Paradigm in Drug Discovery136 citations
Emerging Roles of Vitamin D-Induced Antimicrobial Peptides in Antiviral Innate Immunity135 citations
Acinetobacter baumannii134 citations
Antimicrobial peptides and the gut microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease117 citations
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant: Epidemiological Features, Biological Characteristics, and Clinical Significance116 citations
Histones: The critical players in innate immunity85 citations
Defensins: defenders of human reproductive health77 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method