Faropenem promising antituberculosis candidate competing with ethambutol in efficacy

They conducted an open-label, randomized trial in China, involving newly diagnosed, drug-susceptible pulmonary TB. The control group was treated with the standard 6-month regimen. The experimental group replaced ethambutol with faropenem for 2 months. The primary outcome was the treatment success rate after 6 months of treatment. Noninferiority was confirmed if the lower limit of a 95% one-sided confidence interval (CI) of the difference was greater than −10%.

Results

A total of 227 patients eligible for the study were enrolled in the trial group and the control group in a ratio of 1:1. Baseline characteristics of participants were similar in both groups. In the modified intention-to-treat population, 88.18% of patients in the faropenem group achieved treatment success, and 85.98% of those in the control group were successfully treated, with a difference of 2.2% (95% CI, −6.73-11.13). In the per-protocol population, treatment success was 96.04% in the faropenem group and 95.83% in the control group, with a difference of 2.1% (95% CI, −5.31-5.72). The faropenem group showed noninferiority to the control group in the 6-month treatment success rates. The faropenem group had significantly fewer adverse events (P <0.01).

The study proved that oral faropenem regimen can be used for the treatment of TB, with fewer adverse events. (Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800015959).

Reference:

Yanwan Shangguan, Wanru Guo, Xuewen Feng, Ying Zhang, Lanjuan Li, Kaijin Xu. Randomized control study of the use of faropenem for treating patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Published:April 15, 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2023.04.388

Keywords:

Faropenem, rivals, ethambutol, efficacy, with, fewer, side, effects, First-line TB treatment, International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Yanwan Shangguan, Wanru Guo, Xuewen Feng, Ying Zhang, Lanjuan Li, Kaijin Xu.