An update for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia pharmacotherapy: what's new and where does it fit?

In 2007, 1.2 million people in the United States were hospitalized with pneumonia, and more than 52 000 died from the disease. Community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) can be caused by a variety of organisms as a result of patient factors such as comorbidities, epidemiologic conditions, or the setting in which the infection was contracted. Treatment of CABP differs depending on the types of bacteria that are suspected. In the last several years, due to the concern regarding multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), 2 new antibiotics have been developed and approved for use in CABP. Ceftaroline fosamil (Teflaro) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2010 and tigecycline (Tygacil) in March 2009. In clinical trials, both agents have been shown to be efficacious and are generally well tolerated. Although these agents have received approval as therapy for CABP, it is the responsibility of physicians and pharmacists to prudently use these antimicrobials where they are truly needed. Until these agents show superiority over conventional therapy for selected patient populations, given the wide variety of pharmacotherapy that can prove efficacious for pneumonia, the new agents should be reserved for patients who have known risk factors for MDROs. Further studies are warranted for these agents in the setting of CABP.