clostridium difficile C. diff

Drug May Be New Weapon Against a ‘Superbug’

A newly approved drug may help in the battle against Clostridium difficile — a potentially fatal “superbug” gut infection that has become a scourge in U.S. hospitals. In two clinical trials, researchers found that the drug, called bezlotoxumab (Zinplava), cut the risk of a recurrent C. difficile infection by almost 40 percent. That’s important, because the gut infection commonly comes back after treatment with antibiotics — around 20 percent of the time, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more.

HealthDay News, January 25, 2017

product approval introduction

Trulance Approved for Chronic Constipation

Trulance (plecanatide) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat persistent constipation of unknown (idiopathic) cause in adults.  Some 42 million people in the United States are affected by constipation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Once-daily Trulance is designed to stimulate the upper gastrointestinal tract to secrete fluid and “support regular bowel function,” the FDA said in a news release. Read more.

Source: HealthDay News, January 20, 2017