On Thursday, Pfizer Inc. reported data from late stage trials showing its experimental antibiotic combination successfully treated fatal infections brought on by drug-resistant bacteria.

Health regulators have asked to discover innovative medicines as resistance to conventional antibiotics rises because of the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacterium deaths, often known as superbugs.

 To treat complicated intra-abdominal infections and different types of hospital-acquired pneumonia, late-stage studies compared the experimental combination of the antibiotics aztreonam-avibactam (ATM-AVI) and currently available generic drug metronidazole with a variety of two older antibiotics - meropenem and colistin.

Most patients who get hospital-acquired pneumonia do so at least two to three days after being admitted, or they are mechanically ventilated patients with life-threatening lung infections with a high death risk. 

Infections brought on by gram-negative bacteria can be successfully treated with the antibiotic combination ATM-AVI, according to Pfizer, who also noted that the findings from the studies support this claim.

With Pfizers combination therapy and the currently available generic medication metronidazole, patients with severe intra-abdominal infections had a cure rate of 76.4% compared to 74% with the other antibiotics.

Compared to other, more traditional therapies, Pfizers antibiotic combination with metronidazole had a cure rate of 45.9% for patients with specific ventilator-associated pneumonia and hospital-acquired pneumonia. 

Antibiotic-resistant illnesses are thought to affect 2.8 million Americans annually, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

 (Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/pharma/research-development/pfizer-says-its-experimental-antibiotic-combo-can-treat-some-superbug-infections/100697824)