New antibiotic?

Re: New antibiotic?

Stephen Courtney — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:20:03 GMT

Mixing bactericidals with bacteriostatic drugs is supposed to be counterproductive, i thought.

Re: New antibiotic?

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:23:06 GMT

I'm a little surprised we are not seeing more combination products launched.

We have moves in that direction with sheep wormers and by giving a single product that required multiple mutations simultaneously to develop resistance should [in theory] delay the development of resistance.

That said how many infections do we see that can't be cured by penicillin/oxytet or sulphur drugs? It's not that many.

Re: New antibiotic?

James Laidlaw — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:40:10 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

One of the nurses I work with asked a very good question recently.

"What are the realistic chances of a drug company investing £millions in R&D to try and discover a revolutionary new antibiotic that will kill all known pathogenic bacteria, to then be told that it cannot be in routine daily use and has to be kept on the shelf and in reserve for only a few select cases where laboratory evidence can justify its use?"

Discuss.

[/quote] If it were to be a world leader and potential lifesaver amongst available medications then even if reserved for select cases it would make the company a fortune. I don't see why they wouldn't. If it were to be limited in availability they could likely name their price if no substitute were available, no?

Re: New antibiotic?

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:36:55 GMT

[quote user="james herriot lied"]Relatively recently, I was doing long term locums at a practice which refused to use clavulanate-potentiated amoxycillin; they had other, whizzy stuff for second-line use, but amoxycillin for first-line.[/quote] Forgive me for being thick but as clavulanate is not an antibiotic but an anti-penicilinase I believed it was not subject to the same development of resistance as antibiotics and indeed as it is negating the thing that makes bacteria resistant actually reduces the development of bacterial strains resistant to penicillins, so this would appear to be flawed logic.

Re: New antibiotic?

james herriot lied — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:34:16 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

"What are the realistic chances of a drug company investing £millions in R&D to try and discover a revolutionary new antibiotic that will kill all known pathogenic bacteria

[/quote]

....... for a period of time before selecting out some extremely nasty resistant species which will kill us all in our (hospital) beds.

I think it would be better if we all voluntarily agreed to stop using, say, oxytetracycline (and related antibs) for a period of 5-10 years. The results in terms of sensitivity afterwards would probably turn a few heads.

Relatively recently, I was doing long term locums at a practice which refused to use clavulanate-potentiated amoxycillin; they had other, whizzy stuff for second-line use, but amoxycillin for first-line. After a bit of initial stress and readjustment, I can't honestly say that I noticed any difference - and I was there on and off for a year or so.

Re: New antibiotic?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:01:52 GMT

Pretty much non-existent I'd say

Wynne