Pharmacology of cefminox, a new bactericidal cephamycin

Cefminox is a new cephamycin antibiotic possessing a D-amino acid moiety derived from D-cysteine at the C-7B side chain. Cefminox is active against a wide range of bacteria, especially Gram-negative and anaerobic bacteria. Cefminox shows excellent in vivo efficacy (ED50) which is higher than would be expected from its in vitro activity (MIC). Moreover, cefminox possesses more potent activity in suppression of bacterial regrowth than other cephems. These phenomena are surmised to be caused by strong bactericidal activity which is attributed to a dual action mechanism.