It takes less than a quarter of an hour for Silent Pandemic to give up on the pharmaceutical industry. First we hear from Ella Balasa, a 29-year-old American who is finding it increasingly difficult to overcome the bacterial infections related to her cystic fibrosis. She faces the frightening prospect that what is now difficult will soon become impossible. We then cross the Atlantic for an interview with Sally Davies, UK Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance, who notes that there is a lag of at least 10 years between the identification of an actionable target and the entry into the market of a drug aimed at the target.