Oritavancin kills the spores

[Bry]

Better yet, if taken by mouth it stays in the GI. Be nice to get a hold of some of this stuff.

Conclusions: Both oritavancin and vancomycin were effective in treating clindamycin-induced CDI in a human gut model, but only oritavancin appeared active against spore forms of C. difficile. Furthermore, recurrence of high-level cytotoxin production was observed following vancomycin instillation but not oritavancin. Oritavancin therapy may be more effective in treating CDI than vancomycin, possibly because it may prevent recrudescence of C. difficile spores.

http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/conte ... act/dkn358

[Nancy1]

Wow, this is really exciting! Something to kill spores! I surely hope that further testing bears this out and that oritavancin is available for cdiff treatment ASAP!

[anlockwood]

Fantastic article, thanks for that Bry. It is so nice to read all of these articles about how close they are to better cures for C Diff. I really feel like in the next 10 years they will beat this nasty disease.
Amanda

[Lady CDiff]

i got so excited after i read this, i just had to go download and read the whole article!!!! i really hope this drug works out... the charts in the article are really interesting, they show how after you inoculate the colon with C.diff it gradually decreases in numbers, also after the addition of clindamycin. its numbers actually went down to almost below detectable after clindamycin was added, but after clinda was stopped, it just shot up. interestingly, Bifidobacteria went down to literally zero and never recovered, while Lactobacilli and Enterococci went right back up. seems to me like they survived fine, but were powerless against C.diff and maybe it's Bifidobacteria that offer some protection against C.diff but the authors didn't want to speculate.

i personally don't care about the toxin taking longer to disappear, i'll deal with 3 more days of symptoms, if only it wouldn't come back!!! too bad they only started to try making an oral form in April 2008, as of right now it's only registered as an IV for serious skin infections. i really really hope they do it and it works, maybe we'll have something even better than Vanco :) if you look on their website, they are making this oral form specifically to treat C.diff, i think that's pretty awesome... and i wish them luck!

[Bry]

This is bad news. I wonder if the drug could be fast tracked like they do for AIDS patients.

Targanta to lay off 75 percent of staff will shrink from 115 employees to just 30 workers. The news follows the FDA’s rejection of Targanta’s drug target designed to combat so-called super-bugs including MRSA ( methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) infection.

Targanta CEO Mark Leuchtenberger says, “This is disappointing to us. It’s a wonderful team that brought us almost to the finish line and we will be working to help them find new opportunities.”

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/st ... ily54.html

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/12/19/3869852.htm

[cindym]

Bry- This happens more times than anyone can imagine. My daughter who was a research scientist participated in many discoveries that never came to pass due to companies pulling the funding or other blocking points. It is a shame!

[crissiej]

From Wikipedia:

On February 11, 2008, Targanta submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the US FDA seeking approval of oritavancin;[8] in April 2008, the FDA accepted the NDA submission for standard review, establishing an action date of December 8, 2008.[9] Additionally, Targanta’s Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for oritavancin was submitted and accepted for review by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) in June 2008.[10]

[Bry]

crissiej,

FDA refused it on Dec. 8th. Since then Targanta Therapeutics layed off all but a skeleton crew. The Medicines Company is acquiring Targanta Therapeutics.
(see my last post about it).

I would suspect now it will be many many years before our Doctors can prescribe it even though it has been shown not to be absorbed through the GI track when taken orally and when given by IV in humans, it has no side effects.