Teixobactin Thwarts Resistance

          This month NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts reported that it was working on a new antibiotic called Teixobactin which in early studies has proven effective against Gram-positive bacteria that have become resistant to currently available antibiotics.  Susceptible bacteria include enterococci, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), Clostridium difficile, Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Streptococcus pneumonia (pneumonia) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA).  Each of the bacteria noted above are responsible for significant disease and account for many deaths throughout the world each year.

Developed Through Private Enterprise 

            Teixobactin works by inhibiting cell wall synthesis and is not effective against Gram negative bacteria which have an outer membrane.  Human clinical trials are still a few years away, but thus far, studies have shown that target bacteria have not been able to develop resistance to the new antibiotic through mutations.  This is very good news, indeed, since resistance to currently available antibiotics has increasingly become a problem in the treatment of infectious diseases.  It looks like physicians may soon have another great drug to add to their armamentarium, made possible through the efforts of a United States pharmaceutical company thriving in the environment of private enterprise and the profit motive.