Reuters : reported that Cempra's bacterial skin infection drug clears study, shares surge

Cempra said the drug, fusidic acid, was found as effective as the generic oral antibiotic, linezolid, to treat patients with serious acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI). Cempra Inc said on Friday that its experimental oral drug to treat acute bacterial skin infections cleared a late-stage study, bringing the antibiotic developer one step closer to getting its first drug to market. Most analysts said Cempra would likely abandon the drug after the FDA recommended testing the drug on another 9000 patients. The company is also studying the potential to use the drug to treat refractory infections in the bones and joints. Linezolidone, originally developed by Pfizer Inc, is one of the few approved oral antibiotics to fight methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of serious gram-positive bacteria that frequently causes ABSSSI.

New antiviral drug cuts cytomegalovirus infection and improves survival in patients

Unlike other drugs able to forestall active CMV infection in stem cell transplant patients, letermovir did so without producing unacceptable toxicities. In the early years of bone marrow transplant therapy, 60 to 70 percent of transplant recipients developed CMV infection, Marty recounts. The effects of CMV infection can range from no symptoms to a flu-like fever or mononucleosis ("mono") syndrome. By contrast, only 38 percent of those treated with letermovir developed that level of CMV infection or did not complete the trial. In previous clinical trials, several drugs aimed at preventing CMV infection in stem cell transplant patients either were not effective or produced intolerable side effects.

Merck drug prevents serious infection after marrow transplant: study

CMV, a common virus, is a serious complication associated with bone marrow transplants used to treat acute leukemias and other cancers and diseases of the bone marrow. The Merck drug did not adversely impact blood count or cause kidney damage seen with other drugs, Marty said. An experimental Merck & Co drug succeeded in preventing clinically serious cytomegalovirus (CMV) following bone marrow transplant and was associated with a lower death rate compared with placebo in a late state study, the company said. While there are treatments against CMV once it occurs, prior attempts to find a safe drug that could prevent serious infection after marrow transplants have failed, most recently Chimerix's brincidofovir due to toxicity issues. Merck said it will apply for U.S. and European approval of the antiviral drug letermovir this year.



collected by :Lucy William
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