India Pharma Outlook Team | Thursday, 14 August 2025
Two intravenous (IV) doses of the antibiotic dalbavancin spaced seven days apart are just as effective at treating complicated Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections as daily IV doses of conventional antibiotics given over a period of four to six weeks, according to a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the United States in 2017, there were around 120,000 bloodstream infections caused by S. aureus and 20,000 related deaths.
The study's findings increase the number of antimicrobial treatment choices available to patients and clinicians by offering the most convincing proof to date about the safety and efficacy of dalbavancin therapy for complex S. aureus bloodstream infections. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the results.
“Given the small number of antimicrobial drugs available to treat Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and the bacteria’s growing drug resistance, establishing dalbavancin as a beneficial therapy for these severe infections gives us a vital new alternative to treat them,” said John Beigel, M.D., the acting director of the division of microbiology and infectious diseases at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which sponsored and funded the trial.
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In order to provide antibiotics through the blood for several weeks, the standard treatment for complex S. aureus bloodstream infections, or bacteremia, usually entails placing a lengthy IV line called a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) into a vein, usually in the arm. For the length of treatment, the PICC line stays in place, and patients are subject to several activity restrictions to prevent line damage.
