A New Antibiotic for Use Against MRSA

A new antibiotic still under development that may offer the best defense yet against the flesh-eating bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphyllococcus aureus (MRSA).  It's called oritavancin.  In recent tests, just a single dose of oritavancin proved just as effective against MRSA as a full 10-day course of intravenous vancomycin, the current best treatment for MRSA.  That means that with oritavancin, a patient with MRSA could be given just a single treatment in an outpatient setting, without any need for hospitalization.  In contrast, treatment with vancomycin usually requires a lengthy hospital stay.  The cost savings in hospitalization alone would be huge.  But with that potential cost savings in mind, it’s likely that the drug’s manufacturer will charge a lot for oritavancin.

One downside is that when a patient is treated with a single dose of a drug and sent home, doctors have less oversight over whether the drug is working or not.  A protocol may need to be developed in which someone checks on the patient over the first few days after treatment.

The FDA is likely to approve oritavancin by this Fall under a program that fast-tracks promising new drugs.