It has now been a century that drug resistance has been getting worse in human infectious diseases medicine. A similar trend is observed in veterinary medicine and agriculture. The successful control of drug resistance requires an understanding of biological resistance in general, as a phenomenon taking place in nature. Once we have understood the main characteristics of biological resistance and how it operates in nature, we can then apply that new understanding to its subset that drug resistance in human medicine is. Possession of such an edge can also lead to the successful control of resistance in veterinary medicine, in agriculture, and in other settings of resistance activity by biological organisms. Based on biological resistance data from human medicine, veterinary medicine, and agriculture, some of the fundamental characteristics of resistance as a natural process displayed by all living organisms are established. The consistent, common features characterizing the data are exploited, as is a mathematical model depicting how biological resistance strengthens in living organisms. It is found that biological resistance in general, and drug resistance in particular, is a phenomenon governed by at least two laws: the First Law of Resistance, requiring a threshold to be met before resistance can be prevented and the Second Law of Resistance, causing resistance to strengthen to infinite levels if unstopped. Inference is thereafter made as to the drug design strategy required for the successful control of resistance in medicine. To that end, the blueprint currently applied in the design of infectious diseases drugs needs revising.
Keywords: antibiotic; antimicrobial; combination; design; drug; infectious; law; pathogen; pharmaceutical; resistance; threshold.