New Advances In The Treatment Of Sepsis?

Despite a number of recent setbacks in the area of sepsis, one of themost difficult therapeutic targets to beat, research in this field and the development of new compounds is progressing, according to information presented at the 37th Intersciences Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Toronto, Canada.

Tried and failed therapies include Centocor's Centoxin (HA-1A), Synergen's Antril (anakinra) and Immunex' Leukine (sargramostim). Xoma was one of this year's casualties in the sepsis race. The firm terminated development of its E5 monoclonal antibody product after disappointing Phase III results were reported (Marketletter May 5). As a consequence, Pfizer terminated its exclusive marketing agreement for E5 for the USA and Japan.

Furthermore, the long-awaited results of a large Phase III trial of Bayer/Celltech's Norasept (BAYX-1351) demonstrated that the drug performed no better than placebo in limiting mortality in patients with septic shock (Marketletter May 26).