Telavancin for hospital-acquired pneumonia: Clinical response and 28-day survival

U.S. Food and Drug Administration draft guidance for future antibiotic clinical trials of bacterial nosocomial pneumonia recommends the use of diagnostic criteria according to American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) guidelines and the use of a primary endpoint of 28-day all-cause mortality. The effect of applying these guidelines on outcomes of phase III nosocomial pneumonia studies of telavancin was evaluated in a post hoc analysis. ATS/IDSA criteria were applied in a blind fashion to the original all-treated (AT) group. Clinical cure rates at final follow-up were determined in the refined AT and clinically evaluable (CE) groups (ATS/IDSA-AT and ATS/IDSA-CE, respectively). The exploratory endpoint of 28-day survival was evaluated for the ATS/IDSA-AT group. Noninferiority of telavancin versus vancomycin was demonstrated, with similar cure rates in the ATS/IDSA-AT (59% versus 59%) and ATS/IDSA-CE (83% versus 80%) groups. Cure rates favored telavancin in ATS/IDSA-CE patients where Staphylococcus aureus was the sole pathogen (86% versus 75%). Overall, 28-day survival rates were similar in the telavancin (76%) and vancomycin (77%) groups but lower in telavancin-treated patients with preexisting moderate-to-severe renal impairment (creatinine clearance [CL_CR] of <50 ml/min). Telavancin should be administered to patients with moderate-to-severe renal impairment only if treatment benefit outweighs the risk or if no suitable alternatives are available.