A new antibiotic for the treatment of resistant infections

The US FDA has approved a new antibiotic for the treatment of persistent intra-abdominal infections. The registered development belongs to two companies AbbVie and Pfizer. Abbvie plans to start shipping to the United States in the 3rd quarter of 2025. Abbvie also owns the rights to this drug in Canada, while Pfizer owns it in the rest of the world. 

Emblaveo is a combination of aztreonam + avibactam. 

Aztreonam is a monocyclic beta-lactam antibiotic that inhibits the synthesis of peptidoglycan in the bacterial cell wall and causes the death of sensitive microorganisms.

Avibactam is an inhibitor of beta-lactamases (enzymes that synthesize bacteria to inactivate antibiotics), which enhances the effectiveness of the antibiotic. 

According to Abbvie's official website, the drug will be used in combination with metronidazole to combat various gram-negative bacteria that produce special enzymes, metallo-β-lactamases (MBL), which ensure the resistance of microorganisms to most antibiotics.

Emblaveo has shown comparable efficacy to meropenem, the standard treatment for severe infections. In a phase III clinical trial involving 422 patients, 76% of the Emblaveo group recovered. In the control group, this indicator was 74%. The therapy lasted 28 days. 

Prior to approval in the United States, Emblaveo was successfully registered in the EU in 2023. 

It is worth noting that the development of new antibiotics is an urgent task, due to the high level of adaptation of microorganisms to existing therapies (antimicrobial resistance). 

According to WHO data for 2019, antimicrobial resistance caused the death of 1.27 million people, and indirectly led to the death of 4.95 million people. According to WHO estimates, the damage caused by antimicrobial resistance will range from 1 to 3.4 trillion US dollars by 2030.