Last summer, researchers reported that the Clostridium difficile superbug had overtaken methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as the most common hospital-acquired infection in the US, where around half a million people fall ill from the diarrhea-inducing bacterium each year. For most people, the decades-old antibiotics metronidazole and vancomycin can clear the infection. But in around a quarter of all cases, the symptoms come roaring back, often with life-threatening consequences.

Given the potential for relapse to occur, researchers have been desperately seeking new, more effective drug options. The leading candidate to reach the market within the year is fidaxomicin, an antibiotic pill that inhibits the enzyme RNA polymerase in bacteria. In October, the drug’s manufacturer, San Diego–based Optimer Pharmaceuticals, reported data at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia from two phase 3 trials showing that two daily doses of fidaxomicin were as effective at clearing C. difficile infections as four pills per day of vancomycin. What really stuck out, though, was that fidaxomicin cut the recurrence rate in half. A month later, Optimer announced that it had filed a new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and asked the drug regulator for a faster-than-usual review.

(Click here to continue reading.)

Image via Wikimedia Commons