Single Shot of Oritavancin Effective in Treating MRSA

Researchers say new antibiotic oritavancin is better than standard treatment for infection caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Treating MRSA infection is tough because the bacteria can fight common antibiotics. The treatment usually involves twice-daily infusions given for 10 days.

According to researchers at Duke Medicine, a single dose of the new drug oritavancin is as effective as vancomycin in treating a skin infection.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a major problem in healthcare. Patients usually stop taking antibiotics once they start feeling better. However, not completing the antibiotic course can help the bacteria develop resistance to the drug.

The new drug is given as a single dose, which lowers bacteria's chances of evolving resistance against the medication.

 "The prolonged activity is what makes oritavancin distinctive," said G. Ralph Corey, M.D., lead author of the study. "This drug has a long half-life, which allows for a single-dose treatment."

The study is published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and was funded by the Medicines Company, which owns it and is seeking to market oritavancin.

For the study, researchers conducted two clinical trials on 2,000 patients. The results of the study will be presented to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of the drug's approval application.

The latest study report is based on data from the first clinical trial that involved 954 patients, of which 479 patients received standard vancomycin treatment while 475 patients got the investigational drug. The vacomycin treatment included twice-daily infusions for ten days.

The team found that a single intravenous dose of oritavancin was as effective as vancomycin in reducing the size of the lesion and fever.

"Having a single-dose drug could potentially prevent hospitalizations or reduce the amount of time patients would spend in the hospital," Corey said in a news release.

This isn't the first study to show that oritavancin can kill MRSA. Targanta Therapeutics Corporation had presented a paper at the 47th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago, IL., back in 2007 saying that the drug is effective against MRSA, according to Medical News Today.

Research has also shown that antibiotic linezolid is better than vancomycin in treating MRSA infections.