BioTrends Research Group and Arlington Medical Resources Release TreatmentTrends®: Pneumonia (U.S.) Report

December 26, 2012 - Exton, Penn. – BioTrends Research Group and AMR in their TreatmentTrends®: Pneumonia (U.S.) report find that for the management of nosocomial pneumonia (NP), the most commonly cited change in treatment practices of surveyed physicians in the past five years has been adapting and responding to the increasing incidence of drug-resistant pneumonia. Such changes include evidence-based prescribing, drug-susceptibility testing, consistent de-escalation of therapy, and increased use of carbapenems, colistin, and Pfizer’s Zyvox (linezolid) and Tygacil (tigecycline). Furthermore, the prescribing of combination therapy is dominant in the management of pneumonia in the inpatient setting with approximately 80 percent of surveyed physicians indicating a preference for combination therapies for the empiric treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CABP) and NP.

“The use of combination therapy to manage pneumonia is routine as physicians seek to expand spectrum activity and target multiple pathogens (e.g., MRSA and Gram-negative pathogens) commonly associated in NP or to attack a refractory pathogen, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa” said Associate Therapeutic Class Director of Infectious Diseases Brenda Perez-Cheeks, Ph.D. “Broad-spectrum therapies with both Gram-negative and MRSA coverage, such as Forest/AstraZeneca/Dainippon Sumitomo’s Teflaro (ceftaroline), can offer the potential of a single monotherapy for the treatment of pneumonia, especially CABP.”

Although proven efficacy in the treatment of pneumonia is an important drug attribute to surveyed physicians, the majority are comfortable with off-label prescribing for the management of NP, reporting that in vitro data demonstrating appropriate pathogen coverage and pharmacokinetic data, including tissue penetration, is sufficient to support their prescribing of drugs for the treatment of NP. In fact, nearly one-quarter of surveyed physicians indicate prescribing ceftaroline for CABP due to MRSA, and about 10 percent have used the drug for NP in the past 12 months.

Also, the potential to lower the risk of systemic toxicity and to target delivery of antibiotics directly to lung tissues are the leading reasons surveyed physicians are treating NP patients with inhaled antibiotic therapy, estimating 1 in every 12 patients are treated using this method of drug delivery.


About TreatmentTrends
TreatmentTrends: Pneumonia (U.S.), which includes research with 50 infectious diseases specialists and 51 critical care/internists physicians, analyzes the usage and uptake of antibiotics for the treatment of patients diagnosed with CABP and NP, including hospital-acquired pneumonia, healthcare-associated pneumonia, and ventilator-associated pneumonia in the hospital setting.