Skin infections respond to short antibiotic course

Acute skin infections responded as well to a six-day course of a new antibiotic as infections treated with a longer treatment with an existing drug, researchers report.

Investigators with Trius Therapeutics, San Diego, studied oral tedizolid phosphate, taken once daily for six days, compared to oral linezolid, taken twice daily for 10 days, according to the abstract. The study involved 667 adult patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.

The early clinical response rate for those treated with tedizolid was 79.5 percent, compared to 79.4 percent for those treated with linezolid. Sustained treatment response rates at the conclusion of treatment were 69.3 percent with tedizolid and 71.9 percent with linezolid.

Study authors noted that tedizolid was statistically noninferior to linezolid for early clinical response in treating skin infections.

The study was published in JAMA.