Zeneca's Merrem Set For European Roll-Out

Zeneca Pharmaceuticals has received a positive opinion from the European Union's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products for its injectable antibiotic Merrem/Meronem (meropenem), opening the way for member states to approve the drug.

Meropenem is an ultra broad-spectrum carbapenem antibiotic which is suitable for use in a wide range of bacterial infections. The application for the drug which was lodged with the CPMP included both intravenous and intramuscular formulations. Zeneca says that once approval is granted, it intends to launch the drug for a wide range of serious hospital infections, including meningitis. Merrem was launched in Italy in October, its first market, and Italy acted as rapporteur for the CPMP multistate procedure.

The total European hospital injectable antibiotic market is valued at nearly L1 billion. Zeneca hopes the drug will gain rapid acceptance as it provides "important advantages over other commonly-used first line antibiotic therapy." For example, unlike the only other injectable carbapenem on the market, Merck's Primaxin (imipenem/cilastatin), meropenem does not require co-administration with an enzyme inhibitor to prevent kidney toxicity.