GlaxoSmithKline researchers have developed an experimental antibiotic that, if successful during additional clinical testing, could help fight drug-resistant infections in hospitals, Bloomberg News reports.
The compound, called GSK-299423, targets an enzyme to stop bacteria from replicating. The drug is years away from being commercialized, but is unusual because few pharmaceutical companies are producing such antibiotics, Bloomberg reports.
GSK is a British drug maker with its North American headquarters in the Triangle. The company is eager to find promising new products to offset slower sales and generic competition.
One in 20 people entering a U.S. hospital ends up with an infection, Deverick Anderson, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University Medical Center, told Bloomberg.
When Anderson spent a year tracking contagions at 28 hospitals in the U.S. southeast, he found that infected patients spend on average 23 extra days as in-patients, generating $60,000 in added expenses.
Many bugs are increasingly resistant to existing drugs such as Cipro and vancomycin.
Read the full Bloomberg report on GSK's efforts here.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or