On the 21st of April 2014, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of its investigational antibiotic ceftolozane/tazobactam for the treatment of Complicated Urinary Tract Infections (cUTI) and Complicated Intra-Abdominal Infections (cIAI).

Yay! A new antibiotic to treat UTI! Quite frankly, I would be happier if a big pharmaceutical company decided to promote D-mannose, however they are not interested in natural solutions…But let’s face it: E. coli is getting more and more resistant and some people might be diagnosed at a later stage, when relying on naturals remedies might be too risky. Anyhow, it would be nice to have a new antibiotic to come to the rescue.

“Ceftolozane/tazobactam has been developed to target common and problematic Gram-negative pathogens resistant to current therapies and found in certain types of complicated infections,” said Steven Gilman, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer of Cubist Pharmaceuticals. “Our NDA submission for ceftolozane/tazobactam represents our focus at Cubist to fight global antimicrobial resistance, and offer potential novel treatment options to physicians for appropriate patients.”

Check out this video by Cubist, which explains a little bit about how bacteria interact with antibiotics, adapt to them and render the antibiotics ineffective. Fascinating!

Bottom line: there is a new generation of bacteria (including E. Coli), which are more and more resistant to the available antibiotics. In a couple of years, we might see a new antibiotic, developed by Cubist pharmaceutical joining the rankings to fight UTI.

Hurry up, FDA!