Novel Antibiotic to Prevent VRE Bloodstream Infection

A preventive approach for intensive-care unit (ICU) patients at risk of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infection is a new, first-in-class antibiotic that can suppress VRE in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to undetectable levels. Data on the drug were presented at the 12th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease in Milan (Italy).

Called Ramoplanin, the new drug is currently in a US phase III clinical trial for the prevention of VRE bloodstream infection. Enterococci are a family of Gram-positive bacteria that are now the second most common cause of bloodstream infection acquired in the ICUs of US hospitals. VRE infections pose a special risk in patients with compromised immune systems, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplantation, or any kind of immunosuppressive regimen, and in ICU patients. By eliminating the reservoir of VRE in the gut, doctors believe the incidence of VRE bloodstream infection may be reduced. In phase II trials, the drug suppressed VRE in the GI tract to undetectable levels in 90% of colonized patients undergoing treatment.

"Bloodstream infections caused by VRE are serious events that carry a high risk of morbidity and mortality, with mortality rates cited in the literature as high as 50%,” said Carol A. Kauffman, M.D., chief, infectious diseases, University of Michigan Medical School (Ann Arbor, USA). "Preventing serious VRE infection by decolonizing the GI tract, the primary reservoir for these resistant organisms, is an attractive approach.”

Ramoplanin is being developed by Biosearch Italia SpA (Milan, Italy) in collaboration with its licensing partner, Genome Therapeutics Corp. (Waltham, MA, USA).





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Genome Therapeutics Corp.