Physicians who see patients outside of hospital systems, such as those working in private offices, contribute disproportionately to the spread of antibiotic resistance because they are more likely to prescribe drugs unnecessarily, a first-of-its-kind nationwide study that looked at patterns of antibiotic use and drug-resistant infections has found.
FORBES: Private Physicians Drive Up Antibiotic Resistance, Helped Along By Patients
Roche's second-biggest-selling drug, the antibiotic Rocephin, loses patent protection in 2005.
Also exciting: a stop-smoking pill, a long-delayed inhaled insulin, an osteoporosis medicine, a sleep drug and an antibiotic that can treat infections in a single dose.
In 1995, he joined Cubist (nasdaq: CBST - news - people ), saying he hoped to design a new generation of antibiotics to combat "super bugs"--deadly pathogens that are resistant to just about every drug in the antibiotic arsenal.
They include acne drug Sotret, epilepsy and nerve pain drug gabapentin, and antibiotic ciprofloxacin.
Already, Pfizer's sales are flat because of generic competition for products like antibiotic Zithromax and nerve-pain drug Neurontin.
If a patient in an intensive care unit gets a hypertension drug instead of an antibiotic, did that result in injury?
She and many of her colleagues are being treated with Cipro, an antibiotic made by Bayer, a drug, crops, and chemicals conglomerate.
"For instance if I have a headache, I take a tablet for my headache, but if I take an antibiotic, all of the bacteria in my body are exposed to that antibiotic and I could be selecting drug-resistant strains, and I could be sharing them, " she said.
The drug is a powerful hospital antibiotic, but has some safety issues that limit its use.
The antibiotic Zyvox and the urinary-incontinence drug Detrol, both almost mothballed before he took over Pharmacia, are now bestsellers.
Krensavage says the company's profits may suffer significantly from introductions of rival generic versions of Neurontin, an antiseizure drug, and Augmentin, an antibiotic.
In a study out today at a big infectious disease conference, it compared its best selling antibiotic Zyvox to the older gold-standard drug vancomycin in patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia.
Wyeth (nyse: WYE - news - people ) recently had an antibiotic called Tygacil pass regulators at the Food and Drug Administration.
Experts say it isn't viable for drug companies that spend millions developing a new antibiotic medicine then to be told by regulators to hold it in reserve for the next emergency.
Milan-based Biosearch Italia was once one of the main centers for antibiotic research at Hoechst-Marion-Roussel, a drug firm that is now part of Aventis (nyse: AVE - news - people ).
The drug has already had one of the more successful antibiotic launches.
In the heyday of antibiotic discovery, from the 1940s to the early 1960s, drug firms launched dozens of powerful new microbe fighters, many first found in bacteria in the soil.
Aventis, the only big drug firm claiming to have a new class of antibiotic that's likely to win approval soon, is still held up after a two-year regulatory delay.
If the Food and Drug Administration OKs the drug, it will be only the second new class of antibiotic approved in 35 years.
There is a big movement to move some drug research to China Pfizer just moved its antibiotic research to Shanghai but the bulk of the work is still very much U.S.-centered.
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Antibiotic resistance means if you were to become ill, doctors would have fewer drug options to treat you.
Daniels also didn't take a high-powered antibiotic when he was supposed to, leading to his becoming "extensively" drug resistant.
Canada relented after threatening to circumvent a patent on Cipro, an antibiotic for the treatment of anthrax , and obtain supplies from a generic-drug company.
In Colorado last week a Safeway pharmacy gave a 17-year-old pregnant woman methotrexate, a drug used for chemotherapy and to induce abortion, instead of the antibiotic that had been prescribed.
Thompson said the U.S. government is nudging German drug and chemical giant Bayer to relax the patent on Cipro, an antibiotic that is commonly used to treat anthrax.
In animal tests PolyMedix's drug PMX-30063 is at least as powerful as the gold standard hospital antibiotic vancomycin at killing key strains.
Although the blockbuster antibiotic Zithromax is losing patent protection, Pfizer plans to launch a single-dose version of the drug.
Of those contaminated samples, 84% were resistant to one antibiotic, and a whopping 53% of them were resistant to at least three kinds of the drug.
But these new drugs, which are being developed by French drug giant Aventis and tiny Cubist Pharmaceuticals , are not going to solve the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
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