The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7353 p703
11 June 2005

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News summary

New drug for skin infections

A novel lipoglycopeptide antibiotic, telavancin, has been shown to be beneficial for treating skin infections including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Researchers randomised 167 patients with complicated skin infections to intravenous telavancin (7.5mg/kg per day) or standard therapy (either anti-staphylococcal penicillin four times daily or vancomycin twice daily).

Of those patients with S aureus infection at baseline 80 per cent of those treated with telavancin were cured compared with 77 per cent of those receiving standard therapy. And 82 per cent of patients infected with MRSA were cured with telavancin therapy compared with 69 per cent in the standard group. (Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005;40:1601).