New topical antibiotic retapamulin launched
Altargo is indicated for short-term treatment of impetigo |
Certain skin infections could by tackled with a new topical antibiotic — retapamulin — launched by GlaxoSmithKline last week.
Marketed as Altargo, the 1 per cent retapamulin ointment is indicated
for short-term treatment of impetigo and of infected small lacerations,
abrasions or sutured wounds.
Retapamulin, a pleuromutilin derivative, is predominantly bacteriostatic
against Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. The drug selectively
inhibits bacterial protein synthesis by interacting at a unique site
on the 50S subunit of the bacterial ribosome that is distinct from the
binding sites of other non-pleuromutilin antibacterial agents that interact
with the ribosome.
Patients who do not respond to treatment within two or three days should
be reassessed and considered for a different treatment. The safety and
efficacy of retapamulin ointment has not been established for children
younger than nine months.
Retapamulin should not be used to treat infections caused by meticillin-resistant
S aureus, because, for reasons unknown, patients with open wounds secondarily
infected with MRSA saw inadequate response to the drug in clinical studies.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader