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Non-Tech : Nabi (NABI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheeseburger who wrote (253)	9/21/1999 5:30:00 PM
From: peter a. pedroli	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 354

if staphvax can achieve effectiveness of 60% or better then it's shoe in for approval. check this out, abcnews.go.com Strongest Antibiotic Approved Last Resort Drug Against Worst Bugs By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 21 — The government today approved a long-needed new weapon against the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria: Synercid, the first alternative in 30 years to the antibiotic of last resort. The new drug comes at a critical time, as doctors are warning that more and more germs are developing resistance to that “silver bullet” antibiotic, vancomycin. Indeed, the need was so great that the Food and Drug Administration for the past year has allowed hundreds of patients at risk of death from drug-resistant germs to be treated with Synercid under a special emergency program, while the agency decided whether the drug was safe and effective enough for broad sale. For Specific Infections Today, the FDA approved Synercid to treat vancomycin-resistant enterococcal infections, a life-threatening infection that typically strikes hospital patients. One recent study estimated as many as 52 percent of enterococcal infections are now vancomycin-resistant, making them difficult if not impossible to treat. The FDA also approved Synercid to treat certain complicated skin infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly known as staph infections. But it is not a miracle drug. Synercid doesn't work as well as existing antibiotics for some infections, scientists have stressed — and because bacteria evolve rapidly, Synercid resistance eventually will appear, too. 52 Percent Effectiveness Synercid was studied in more than 2,000 patients, and its overall effectiveness at fighting off infection was 52 percent, the FDA said. The most frequently reported side effects were muscle and joint pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and rash. Synercid, manufactured by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, is the first in a new class of antibiotics called streptogamins to be sold in the United States, and it appears to work by dealing bacteria a one-two punch. It is a combination of two drugs — quinupristin and dalfopristin — that inhibit two different methods of bacterial protein synthesis. That combination effect makes the chemicals 16 times more potent together than either molecule alone, the company says.