Scientists were reluctant to try albicidin as a medical antibiotic because they could not predict what bad side effects it might have.

That problem somehow did not prevent the discovery, testing and adoption of penicillin. Given the urgent need for new antibiotics, perhaps medicine has become hypercautious.

If they test albicidin with due care but not hypercaution, they can find out whether it safe for humans, then use it for treatment if it is safe. They might find a great new antibiotic quickly, or they might find it is unusable. This is worth a try, isn't it?

I suspect something nastier underlies the hypercaution: perhaps pharma companies are not interested in using albicidin because they cannot patent it. If they develop "better" versions, they will patent those and make a lot more money, at a byproduct making them too expensive in most of the world. I suppose they don't want those expensive products to have to compete with generic albicidin.