New drug may offer hope against MRSA & other super-bugs

Super-bugs, antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as MRSA, are a very real concern around the world.

Because of the indiscriminate and inappropriate use of antibiotics, humans have caused once treatable diseases to become immune to modern therapies, but for some infections, a new drug may offer hope.

SEE ALSO: What happens when you don’t know how to take antibiotics

The World Health Organization (WHO) has become one of the predominant driving forces in the new battle against saving humans from super-bugs, formally known as pathogens with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). According to the organization, AMR is present in all parts of the world, with once-treatable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria showing some of the heaviest affects.

In 2012, officials reported about 450,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been identified in 92 countries, and there are high proportions of antibiotic resistance (ABR) in bacteria that cause common infections (e.g. urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections) in all regions of the world.

One of these ABR bacteria is that of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an infection commonly associated with soft-tissue infections related to hospital and nursing home care.

Hope is on the horizon, however, as governments around the world are making an attempt to head off the growth of AMR through the development of more advanced pharmaceutical technologies. In the United States, the government has created the Generating Antibiotics Incentive Now (GAIN), a program encouraging the production of new medications to treat disease.

“GAIN grants an additional five years of exclusivity for those new antibiotics designated under the law as a “qualified infectious disease product,” defined as “an antibacterial or antifungal drug for human use intended to treat serious or life-threatening infections,”” stated an overview of the program from PEW Charitable Trusts.

In other words, the government is encouraging the discovery of new medications by offering those first on the market a no-competition incentive.

And it’s thanks to this new incentive program that doctors may soon have a new way to treat MRSA.

The very first drug to be approved through GAIN is called Dalvance, and in clinical trials of more than 1200 individuals, the drug was proven to be just as effective against skin infections as the powerful antibiotic, vancomycin. Similarly, Dalvance has side-effects close to those of current antibiotics, including headache, nausea and diarrhea.

SEE ALSO: Antibiotic overuse and misuse on the rise

“[The]s approval demonstrates the FDA’s commitment to encouraging increased development and approval of new antibacterial drugs, providing physicians and patients with important new treatment options,” said Edward Cox, M.D., M.P.H, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products, in a press release.

Dalvance is intended to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) caused by certain susceptible bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus (including methicillin-susceptible and methicillin-resistant strains) and Streptococcus pyogenes and is considered to be a life-saving medication.