FDA approved antibacterial drugs: 2018-2019

Bacterial resistance to existent antibiotherapy is a perpetual internationally-recognized problem. Year after year, there is a continuous need for novel antibacterial drugs and this research and development efforts recently resulted in few new drugs or combination of drugs proposed for the use into the clinic. This review focuses on the novel US FDA approved antibacterial agents in the last two years (2018-2019). Plazomicin, eravacycline, sarecycline, omadacycline, rifamycin (2018) and imipenem, cilastatin and relebactam combination, pretomanid, lefamulin, cefiderocol (2019) are new therapeutic options. Plazomicin aminoglycoside antibiotic targets Enterobacteriaceae infections, being mainly used for the complicated urinary tract infections. The fully synthetic fluorocycline eravacycline gained approval for the complicated intra-abdominal infections. The tetracycline-derived antibiotic sarecycline might be a useful strategy for the management of non-nodular moderate to severe acne, while the other tetracycline-derived antibiotic approved, omadacycline, may be used for the patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. The already-known RNA-synthesis suppressor rifamycin is now also approved for noninvasive Escherichia Coli-caused travelers' diarrhea. Two combinatorial strategies were approved for complicated urinary tract infections, complicated intra-abdominal infections (imipenem, cilastatin and relebactam) and lung tuberculosis (pretomanid in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid). Lefamulin is a semisynthetic pleuromutilin antibiotic for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, while cefiderocol, a cephalosporin antibiotic is the last antibacterial drug approved in 2019, for the use in complicated urinary tract infections. Despite of these new developments, there is an ongoing need and urgency to develop novel antibiotic strategies and drugs to overrun the bacterial resistance to antibiotics.