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An antibiotic already in use in Europe to treat pneumonia controlled deadly bloodstream infections with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria just as effectively as the most powerful antibiotic currently in use, according to data from a late-stage trial.

Ceftobiprole from Swiss drugmaker Basilea Pharmaceutica appeared to be equally effective as the older drug daptomycin in the roughly one-in-four patients who had particularly difficult to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections, researchers reported on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“This is an area of true need,” study leader Dr. Thomas Holland of Duke University School of Medicine said in a statement. “There has not been a new antibiotic approved for the treatment of S. aureus bacteremia for over 15 years.”

For the study, 390 patients hospitalized with complicated bloodstream staph infections were randomly assigned to receive infusions of ceftobiprole or daptomycin.

The treatment was successful in 69.8% of the ceftobiprole group and 68.7% of the daptomycin group, according to the report. Success was defined as survival, symptom improvement, clearance of S. aureus from the blood, absence of new complications and no need for other antibiotics.

Gastrointestinal issues were the most common side effect with both drugs.

Daptomycin was the most recently approved new antibiotic for S. aureus bacteremia more than 15 years ago, the researchers noted.

“Despite a lot of work in medical science, complicated staph infections still have a 25% mortality rate at 90 days,” study co-author Dr. Vance Fowler Jr. of Duke Health said in a statement. “We need more options for treating these infections.”

In August, Basilea Pharmaceutica filed for approval of ceftobiprole with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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