Is an Expensive New Antibiotic Worth the Cost?

Patients with extensive cellulitis or large abscesses often require hospital admission for intravenous antibiotics. Most infections are due to Staphylococcus aureus and streptococci, but there are a number of infections that are due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which can be a treatment challenge for many reasons including antibiotic toxicity, bacterial resistance, and/or lack of an oral formulation to treat the infection. This greatly adds to hospitals costs and the other associated risks of inpatient stays. Outpatient treatment of these patients is cost saving and increases patient satisfaction. What if there was a treatment that was as effective as the usual once or twice daily inpatient treatments? Dalbavancin is a lipoglycopeptide antibiotic with activity against gram-positive pathogens including MRSA. The terminal half-life of the antibiotic is 2 weeks. Put simply, this antibiotic is like vancomycin with a long half-life.http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/GeneralInfectiousDisease/49088?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2014-12-13&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=ST&eun=g721819d0r&userid=721819&email=amydugan2%40gmail.com&mu_id=5883165&utm_term=Daily