Two experimental antibiotics appear to work safely against an increasingly common and dangerous form of infection called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, researchers said on Sunday.An important consideration that is not much discussed: It is not enough just to have new drugs; what we need are new classes of drugs. That's because, when staph acquires protection against one drug, it is likely to be acquiring protecting against all chemically similar drugs — thus, not just methicillin but all the synthetic penicillins; not just Keflex but all the first-generation (and second- and third-generation) cephalosporins.
Doctors are clamoring for drugs that can fight the so-called superbug infection, which kills an estimated 19,000 people a year in the United States alone. (Reuters)
Antibiotic resistance. The things we do to make it worse. And anything else I find interesting.
01 November 2008
New drugs for MRSA, at various experimental stages
As you might guess by the name, ICAAC (the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy) features much research on the pharma side of things. There were many research reports this past week on drugs at various stages that I was intending to write up for you, but I just noticed that Reuters got there first and did quite a good job. So consider checking this story, which discusses PTK 0796, iclaprim, ceftobiprole, dalbavancin and televancin:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Could you please post your article about PTK 0796, iclaprim, ceftobiprole, dalbavancin and televancin - as the link to "this story" provides a page saying the story is no longer available on MSNBC. Thank you.
Post a Comment