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Biotech / Medical : XOMA. Bull or Bear? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert K. who wrote (7347)	9/26/1998 9:19:00 AM
From: Tharos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17367

Bob, been busy so doing hit and miss on the thread. Remember something about new antibiotic that was resistant to resistance. Came across this, may be a duplicate if someone else noticed and posted: New drug makes fresh attack on "superbugs" biz.yahoo.com Friday September 25, 7:56 pm Eastern Time New drug makes fresh attack on "superbugs" By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - A new class of antibiotics now in final human trials launches a fresh attack against so-called superbugs that resist conventional drugs, researchers said on Friday. The drugs strike the bacteria in a unique way that doctors hope will make it harder for the bugs to ever develop resistance. But doctors warn that people will still have to be prudent with antibiotics, and no drug guarantees against the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Several teams of researchers at an American Society of Microbiology meeting in San Diego told of experiments with linezolid, the first of a new class of antibiotics known as oxazolidinones. They said it works well in pill or intravenous form, curing more than 90 percent of patients of their infections. ''It's worked pretty well,'' said Dr. Robert Moellering of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who has tested several new antibiotics in the lab. Linezolid is now in Phase III clinical trials, the last stage before makers Pharmacia & Upjohn (NYSE:PNU - news) can seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ''Clearly it is effective for skin infections,'' Moellering said in a telephone interview ahead of the meeting. He said phase II trials in more than 200 patients with skin infections such as cellulitis showed more than 96 percent were cured by linezolid. It cured 95 percent of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Current antibiotics work by dissolving the cell wall of the bacterium, stopping it from building a cell wall, stopping it from making the proteins it needs to live, or from using those proteins, or by stopping their reproduction by interfering with genetic material. Linezolid has a new mode of action, sabotaging essential cell factors known as ribosomes and RNA, which is the useful stage of DNA used to make the proteins essential for cell life. If these factors do not all work together just right, the cell will starve. Moellering said the system involves several genes, so it will be hard for bacteria to develop resistance against linezolid. He said Pharmacia had created bacteria that resisted linezolid in the laboratory, but it had been very difficult, and none were seen in human patients. ''So all of the data so far suggests that this is a drug for which it will be difficult for bacteria to become resistant, but we thought that was true for vancomycin, too,'' Moellering said. Vancomycin was the last line of resistance against bacteria such as enterococci, which have developed resistant strains that defy all other known drugs. But vancomycin-resistant enterococci have been found increasingly in hospitals, in patients who have suppressed immune systems who have been on antibiotics for weeks on end. ''What is interesting about linezolid and other oxazolidinones is they represent a really unique class of antibiotics. There has been no unique antibacterial on the market in 20 years,'' Moellering said. Doctors say bacteria have evolved resistance against drugs because people over-use them. They say antibiotics will have to be prescribed less often, and patients will have to take care to use the full course when they are prescribed, so no bacteria escape being killed by the drug. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc (NYSE:PNU - news) Related News Categories: health, US Market News --------------------------------------------------------------------------------