The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new class of antibiotics that can help treat urinary tract infections (UTIs). This is the first time in 30 years that a new antibiotic has been approved for UTIs. It is an oral pill named Blujepa from drugmaker GSK that can be used by women and girls above 12 years of age with uncomplicated UTIs.
UTIs are the most common type of infection that happens to women and are usually caused by bacteria including E. coli. While most UTIs clear up within a few days or weeks after a course of antibiotics, the rise in antibiotic resistance has made treatment difficult.
According to GSK, the last time the FDA cleared a new class of antibiotics for uncomplicated UTIs was in 1996, with the approval of fosfomycin, said a report in NBC News. (Last year, the agency approved the drug Pivya for UTIs, which belongs to the penicillin drug class.)
In two phase 3 clinical trials of 3,000 adults and teens, Blujepa was shown to successfully treat 50% to 58% of patients’ infections when taken twice a day for five days, compared to 43% to 47% in a group that received the antibiotic nitrofurantoin.
According to a report in 2019, more than half of women will experience at least one UTI in their lifetime and around 30% will experience a recurring infection. Blujepa is expected to be available in the second half of the year. Tony Wood, GSK's chief scientific officer said that they were also is also studying whether the drug can treat gonorrhoea.
Dr. Candace Granberg, a pediatric urologist and surgeon-in-chief at Mayo Clinic Children’s in Rochester, Minnesota, according to a report in NBC News, said, "Developing new antibiotics that attack bacteria in different ways reduces the risk of drug resistance, helping to keep treatment options open."
Granberg said, "We absolutely need new antibiotics for uncomplicated UTIs. In simple terms, this new antibiotic works its magic by using a novel binding method to block a bacteria’s ability to replicate."
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