New drugs to be used in the war against resistant bacteria

Pharmaceutical companies are developing new drugs to combat the threat of antibiotic resistant disease strains. ZYVOX, a new drug developed by the Pharmacia Corporation, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2000. It will be used to treat infections caused by bacteria that had become resistant to penicillin.

Other pharmaceutical companies are also developing drugs. XOMA, a biopharmaceutical company based in Berkeley, California is working on a new line of antibiotic drugs that contain a human host protein called BPI. BPI kills bacteria differently from conventional antibiotics like penicillin, and seems to enhance the power of existing antibiotics.