Investigating Pseudomonas Susceptibility to Ceftolozane/tazobactam

Jason Pogue, PharmD, BCPS-ID, Clinical Pharmacist, Infectious Diseases, Sinai-Grace Hospital, explains his team’s study regarding the susceptibility of Pseudomonas isolates to ceftolozane/tazobactam.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“Our study was simple; it was kind of a big data-type study where we just looked at 80 different hospitals, and basically any time that any of those hospitals on a given isolate, tested one of their Pseudomonas isolates to ceftolozane/tazobactam, we looked at the in vitro susceptibilities; we wanted to see if it was active or not.

I think it’s important to keep in mind when you look at those data that there’s going to be a selection bias that comes with that, because we only test this drug, when we can’t use the other one; so, they’re going to be more resistant pathogens in general. But what we found was that even though the vast majority of those were resistant to other traditional beta-lactam therapies, over 80% of them were still susceptible to ceftolozane, and that actually included about 80% susceptibility against nearly 200 Pseudomonas isolates that were resistant to all of the other beta-lactam options. Once again, making the case that it is really an unmet need or a niche from that standpoint.”

DISCLOSURES: Jason Pogue is a Consultant for Merck, Allergan, Med Co, Shionogi, Zavante, Achaogen. This study was supported by a grant from Merck.