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Five-Day Therapy Course With Gemifloxacin Effective Against Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Presented at IDSA

By Ed Susman

TORONTO, CANADA -- October 16, 2006 -- Five days of treatment with gemifloxacin is as effective as the standard 7-day treatment in treating at-risk patients with mild to moderate community-acquired pneumonia, researchers reported her at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 44^th annual meeting.

"Gemifloxacin as a short course therapy for 'at-risk' patients, including older adults, would potentially reduce drug costs, minimize development of resistance as well as reduce the incidence of adverse events and drug-drug interactions," said Thomas File, Jr., MD, professor of medicine, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown, Ohio.

Each year, 900,000 cases of community-acquired pneumonia occur in the United States, and frequently the person who contracts the illness is an older person, Dr. File said. One person out of 20 over the age of 85 gets pneumonia once a year, he added.

In the study, 256 adults diagnosed with mild to moderate pneumonia were assigned to treatment with 320 mg a day of gemifloxacin for 5 days and 254 patients were assigned to the same regimen for 7 days. About 16% of patients were over 65 years of age.

In the intention-to-treat analysis, 92.6% of 256 patients were deemed successful clinical treatments with the 5-day regimen compared with 87% of 254 patients treated for 7 days.

When doctors reviewed radiological evidence, they found that 94.9% of the 256 patients on the 5-day treatment were treated successfully compared with 88.6% of 254 patients on the 7-day regimen.

"Overall frequency of treatment-related adverse events was similar between treatment groups," Dr. File said in his poster presentation October 13^th. About 21.1% of patients on the 5-day schedule reported adverse events compared with 20.9% of patients on the 7-day regimen. He also noted that there was a low discontinuation rate -- 1.2% in the 5-day group and 2.0% in the 7-day group.

The study was supported by Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Waltham, Massachusetts.


[Presentation title: Is Short Course Gemifloxacin Therapy Effective in At-Risk Community-acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Patients? Abstract 437]

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