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Health Tip: Why Antibiotic Resistance Is Serious

Posted 16 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

-- Antibiotic resistance occurs when a bacterium mutates and becomes immune to the effects of a specific antibiotic. You can help prevent antibiotic resistance by taking an antibiotic regimen only when necessary. Remember that antibiotics don't work against viral infections such as a cold or the flu. If you do begin taking an antibiotic, you should never skip a dose. Also, you should finish the entire amount that your doctor has prescribed, despite the fact that you might be feeling better. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says antibiotic-resistant bacteria are dangerous because: It may be difficult to find a medication that kills the bacteria. Resistant bacteria tend to spread more quickly between families and within communities. Infections become more difficult and more expensive to treat. People may die from a resistant infection before it can be treated ... Read more

Cubist Pharmaceuticals Receives FDA Approval for 2-Minute IV Injection of Cubicin

Posted 17 Dec 2010 by Drugs.com

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 1, 2010 - Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that its currently-marketed antibiotic, Cubicin (daptomycin for injection), has been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for once-a-day dosing as a 2-minute intravenous (IV) injection. Cubicin is the only approved 2-minute IV injection for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) complicated skin infections and bacteremia. In addition to 2-minute IV injection, several other changes to the Cubicin label were incorporated. These include changes and reformatting of the Warnings and Precautions in the label, updates to the Post Marketing Experience section of the label, and re-formatting of the label to be compliant with the FDA's Physician Labeling Rule (PLR). The FDA originally approved Cubicin in 2003 as a once-a-day 30-minute infusion for the ... Read more

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Smarten Up About Antibiotics, CDC Urges

Posted 18 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Nov. 18 – Knowing when to take antibiotics – and when not to – can help fight the rise of deadly "superbugs," say experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary or inappropriate, the agency says, and overuse has helped create bacteria that don't respond, or respond less effectively, to the drugs used to fight them. "Antibiotics are a shared resource that has become a scarce resource," said Dr. Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. She's also medical director a of new program, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, that had its launch this week. "Everyone has a role to play in preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance," Hicks said. The stakes are high, said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, CDC's associate director for health care-associated infection prevention programs. Almost every type of bacteria ... Read more

A Radical Plan To Save Antibiotics

Posted 7 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com

From Guardian Web (September 7, 2010) What are we to do about the diminishing power of antibiotics - once the miracle drugs that looked set to end infectious diseases? We know the problem is becoming very serious - here is a piece I wrote about the alarming prospects for a future without antibiotics. But we don’t hear much in the way of imaginative answers. So it’s refreshing to read a paper out this morning from Aaron Kesselheim, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Kevin Outterson, a professor at Boston University Law School. Their analysis, published in the journal Health Affairs, says the usual idea, to give pharmaceutical companies financial incentives to invent and manufacture more antibiotics, won’t work. One of the reasons we are in this parlous state of affairs, they say, is that drug companies in the past have tried too hard to sell more ... Read more

Antibiotic Resistance Can Last a Year, Review Finds

Posted 19 May 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, May 18 – Some patients who take antibiotics may become resistant to them and stay that way for as long as a year, a new review finds. The researchers analyzed 24 studies of antibiotic resistance, in which people develop a partial or full immunity to the powers of a medication. The studies looked at use of the drugs in primary care, most often for respiratory or urinary tract infections. Antibiotic resistance is at its height in the month after a drug is prescribed, but the effect may last for a year, according to the findings published online May 18 in BMJ. "Primary care clinicians and patients may wish to consider this evidence when discussing the benefits and risks of prescribing and consuming antibiotics," study author Alastair Hay, consultant senior lecturer in primary health care at the University of Bristol in England, and colleagues concluded. In an accompanying ... Read more

FDA Medwatch Alert: Cubicin (daptomycin for injection)

Posted 9 Apr 2008 by Drugs.com

[Posted 04/09/2008] Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. informed healthcare professionals that a potentially significant impurity, 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), has been isolated from reconstituted Cubicin stored in with ReadyMED elastomeric infusion pumps manufactured by Cardinal Health, Inc. MBT is used in the manufacture of rubber and has been reported to leach from rubber stoppers and syringe components into medicinal products in the past. Cutaneous exposure to MBT has been associated with dermal sensitization, and chronic administration of MBT to laboratory rodents has been associated with an increased risk of certain tumors. No MBT has been identified in reconstituted Cubicin in other standard types of infusion systems that have been tested. Healthcare professionals are advised to discontinue using ReadyMED elastomeric infusion pumps with Cubicin until the issue has been addressed. Read more

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Related Condition Support Groups

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infection, Endocarditis, Skin and Structure Infection, Bacteremia, Skin Infection