Results from a phase 2 randomised trial suggest that a new investigational antibiotic is as effective as the current standard-of-care antibiotic for the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by several multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, indicated that patients treated with the siderophore-based drug, cefiderocol, had a higher and more sustained level of pathogen eradication and similar clinical outcomes to those treated with the current standard of care, imipenem-cilastatin.
It is novel in its approach to overcome the three main mechanisms of antibiotic resistance used by Gram-negative bacteria -- two outer membranes that make it hard for antibiotics to penetrate, porin channels which can adapt and change to block the antibiotic entry, and efflux pumps that expel antibiotics back out of the…
