Efficacy and Treatment Duration: Where is the Tipping Point?

Development pf antibacterials differs in several important ways from drug development in other areas, and the lack of standard dose-finding is just one of them. Dose-finding in its most basic form involves ascending amounts of drug for efficacy and safety; Continue reading Efficacy and Treatment Duration: Where is the Tipping Point?

Antibiotic Inhalers Galore (Part 1):  More Combinations and Permutations than a Rubik’s Cube

There is much interest in inhaled antibiotics these days.  Prima facie, the logic for this approach is compelling: Getting the antibiotic (and a lot of it) directly to the site of infection, while avoiding systemic toxicity, sounds like optimized efficacy Continue reading Antibiotic Inhalers Galore (Part 1):  More Combinations and Permutations than a Rubik’s Cube

Food for Thought, Sprinkled With Small Amounts of Antibiotic Residues

80% of antibiotics worldwide are used in veterinary medicine. With only a minor fraction metabolized to inactive compounds, there are plenty of antibiotics excreted by farm animals in unchanged active form. These antibiotic residues are found in manure, in the Continue reading Food for Thought, Sprinkled With Small Amounts of Antibiotic Residues

The FDA AMDAC on Fluoroquinolones (Part 2): Where Were the FQ Advocates?

Any FDA meeting is a high-stakes game for industry:  One never knows how the discussions will go. Some oddball issue may take center stage and usurp much time, creating an unbalanced perspective.  At other times, simple issues seem to create Continue reading The FDA AMDAC on Fluoroquinolones (Part 2): Where Were the FQ Advocates?

AMDAC November 5, 2015 on Fluoroquinolones in ABS, ABECB, uUTI  – Part 1

Only now, a few days before the actual AMDAC meeting, the FDA’s Briefing Document becomes available to the public.  The topic of the December 5th meeting:  Reappraisal of the risk/benefit of fluoroquinolones (FQ) in approved but “mild, self-limiting” disease indications in Continue reading AMDAC November 5, 2015 on Fluoroquinolones in ABS, ABECB, uUTI  – Part 1