New Antibiotic for Multi-Drug Resistant Pneumonia

A new antibiotic is designed to treat mild-to-moderate community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) due to multi-drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (MDRSP). The antibiotic has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Pneumonia is the leading US cause of death due to infections. More than one-fourth of S pneumoniae isolates are currently multi-drug resistant according to recent surveillance data. Multi-drug resistant S pneumoniae is defined as strains resistant to two or more of the following antibiotics: penicillin, second-generation cephalosporins such as cefuroxime, macrolides such as clarithromycin or azithromycin, tetracyclines, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole.

The new antibiotic, called Factive (gemifloxacin), was developed by Genesoft Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (So. San Francisco, CA, USA). The company is focused on anti-infective agents and anti-biowarfare therapeutics.

"Bacterial resistance is a very real and emerging problem,” said Gary Patou, M.D., president of Genesoft. "Increasingly, physicians are realizing that their prescribing decisions can not only affect the individual patient receiving the drug but can also have a larger societal impact. Approval of a specific claim for Factive to treat MDRSP provides physicians with a powerful and effective antibiotic option for patients.”




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