You can’t accuse Merck & Co. of
giving up on antibiotics. This year, it’s racked up a label expansion
for Zerbaxa and a first-time approval for Recarbrio—and now it’s touting
new data that could win the newcomer an expansion.
Recarbrio, a combination of imipenem, cilastatin and relebactam, met its endpoints in a phase 3 test against hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia in adult patients, Merck said Monday.
That’s the very label expansion
Merck’s Zerbaxa won earlier this year, but more antibiotic options are
sorely needed for patients with severe and sometimes fatal pneumonia,
said Joan Butterton, Merck’s associate vice president in infectious
disease clinical research.
“When you have a patient with a bed
infection, you sometimes know the infecting organism and you can test
for resistance and you can see which antibiotic which will be able to
fight that infection,” she said in an interview. “Many times, you need
to make a decision prior to having culture and sensitivity.”
The Restore-IMI 2 study
tested Recarbrio against piperacillin/tazobactam and looked at day 28
all-cause mortality and clinical response as primary and secondary
endpoints. Recarbrio hit both goals in the study, and Merck now plans to
file the data with regulators for approval.
Recarbrio won its initial FDA nod in
July to treat complicated urinary tract and abdominal infections when
other treatments don’t work.
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