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Dnevnik Express
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An antibiotic already used in Europe to treat pneumonia is just as effective in deadly staph infections of the blood as the most powerful drug used, Reuters reports, quoted by BTA.
The preparation is produced by a Swiss company. Data from an advanced clinical trial of the antibiotic ceftobiprole have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The causative agent of the infection is the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (Staphylococcus aureus).
The European Commission has recommended an increase in the production of antibiotics
The study showed that the antibiotic appeared to be as effective as the older drug daptomycin in patients suffering from the very stubborn methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
“This is an area where there is a real need” for a new therapy, says study leader Dr. Thomas Holland of Duke University School of Medicine, adding: “Until now, there has been no new antibiotic approved for the bacterium, more than 15 years.”
For the purpose of the study, 390 patients hospitalized with complicated staph infections were randomly assigned to receive ceftobiprole or daptomycin infusions.
The therapy was successful in 69.8% of those treated with the new preparation and in 68.7% of those with the previously used treatment, study data show.
Success is defined on the basis of survival, improvement of symptoms, clearance of the bacterium from the blood, no new complications and no need for the administration of other antibiotics.
Gastrointestinal problems are the most common side effect of both drugs.
Daptomycin was the most recently approved antibiotic to treat Staphylococcus aureus infections, more than 15 years ago, the researchers said.
“Despite a lot of work in medical science, complicated staph infections still have a 90-day mortality rate of 25 percent,” study co-author Dr. Vance Fowler Jr. noted in the statement. “We need more options to treat them.”
In August, the company – maker of ceftobiprole – filed for approval with the US Food and Drug Administration.
