Current levels of funding for antibiotic research in the UK are “inadequate”, experts have said.

Antibacterial drug resistance has become a “world health crisis” they warned and called for research funding to be “urgently increased”.

Their new study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that less than one per cent of research funding awarded by public and charitable bodies to UK researchers between 2008 to 2013 was awarded for research on antibiotics.

“The message that antibacterial (antibiotic) drug resistance has become a world health crisis has been brought to global attention by the World Health Organisation, the EU, the World Economic Forum, and the UK Chief Medical Officer,” lead author Laura Piddock, professor of microbiology of the University of Birmingham, said.