A Rutgers researcher leading a trial found that the novel combination antibiotic sulbactam-durlobactam combats dangerous pneumonia at least as well as the best currently approved treatment. The findings have led a unanimous expert committee to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve the new drug, which could be available this summer to combat the often-fatal pneumonia strain known as carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii–calcoaceticus complex (ABC), typically acquired in hospitals.
“Antibiotic-resistant infections are a serious and persistent problem at healthcare facilities, and the [Centers for Disease Control] ranks ABC at the highest level on its threat list,” said Keith Kaye, chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Disease at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and first author of the trial report in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “An estimated 8,500 hospital-acquired cases killed 700 patients and cost $280 million in 2019, so we greatly needed a breakthrough treatment like sulbactam-durlobactam.” To read the full story.