Phase 3 Vaccine for Clostridium Difficile (C. diff)
Aug. 16, 2018 [BioPharmaDive] Pfizer is entering phase 3 clinical trials for a Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection vaccine; the trial will last more than three years and enroll 16,000 participants. Read full article here
Bezlotoxumab for Prevention of Recurrent Clostridium Difficile Infection in Patients at Increased Risk for Recurrence
August 17, 2018 [MDLinx] Researchers analyzed past data to determine the risk factors that should be considered for administration of bezlotoxumab for repeat C. diff infections. Risk factors for repeat CDI were: age +65 years, history of CDI, compromised immunity, severe CDI, and ribotype 027/078/244. While bezlotoxumab induced the greatest reduction of repeat CDI among participants with 3 risk factors, it may also benefit those with 1 or 2 risk factors. Read more here
Candidemia Presents Significant Risk for C difficile Coinfection
August 16, 2018 [Contagion Live] “Hospital patients who acquire candidemia—a blood infection caused by the fungus Candida that has a high mortality rate—have a 1 in 10 risk of also having Clostridium difficile. These 2 conditions together may lengthen hospital stays and possibly push mortality rates even higher.” Read more here
Trained Dogs Can Detect C. difficile in Stool
August 12, 2018 [Healio] “Dogs trained to sniff out Clostridium difficile in human stool samples were able to identify cases with up to 92.6 sensitivity and 85.1 specificity, according to recent study findings.” Read full article here
Fidaxomicin Superior to Vancomycin in Achieving C. difficile Symptomatic Cure
August 06, 2018 [ContagionLive] “A total of 24 trials were evaluated, which included 5361 patients with C. difficile who received 13 different therapies, most of which were antibiotics. The treatments included in the analysis were cadazolid, rifaximin, nitazoxanide, LFF571, teicoplanin, ridinidazole, bacitracin, surotomycin, fusidic acid, tolevamer, vancomycin, metronidazole, and fidaxomicin.
Fidaxomicin was found to be significantly better than vancomycin for achieving the primary outcome. Teicoplanin also showed superiority to vancomycin in regard to improving patients’ odds of achieving a sustained symptomatic cure.
The investigators also noted that fidaxomicin, when used as a first-line treatment for CDIs, is more cost-effective than commonly used C. difficile antibiotic treatments, such as metronidazole and vancomycin. Early data for ridinilazole suggest that this treatment could potentially become a new, efficacious treatment against infections with C. difficile, but phase 3 trials of this drug are still in progress.” Read full article here