Measuring the Effectiveness of a Novel Antibiotic for Patients with Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections

Nontuberculous mycobacterial infections are often accompanied by high levels of drug resistance. Often, combination therapy approaches are needed to combat the opportunistic pathogen associated with these infections.

Omadacycline (OMC) is a novel aminomethylcycline antibiotic that is currently FDA approved for both acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.

A large team of investigators wanted to measure how effective this novel antibiotic might be against nontuberculous mycobacterial infections. As such, they performed multicenter, retrospective, observational study conducted from January 2020 to March 30, 2022. They included patients 18 years of age or older that received omadacycline for nontuberculous mycobacteria infections within 72 hours of diagnosis. In terms of primary outcomes, they were looking at clinical failure, defined as all-cause mortality, persistence or re-emergence of infection during or after therapy, and escalation or alteration of omadacycline therapy.

“Clinical success was observed in 88% of patients, with most receiving active antibiotic treatment prior to OMC (83%), including combination therapy with either clofazimine (44%), or azithromycin (42%),” the investigators wrote.

The investigators concluded that omadacycline showed effectiveness and a good safety profile and could be another potential option in the treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections.

The study, “Real-world, Multicenter Assessment of Omadacycline Use in patients with Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections,” was presented at the 24th Annual Making a Difference in Infectious Disease (MAD-ID) Meeting 2022 in Orlando, Florida from May 18-21.

Contagion spoke to lead author Amer El Ghali, PharmD, Infectious Diseases PK/PD and Health Outcomes Research fellow at Anti-Infective Research Lab, Wayne State University, at the MAD-ID meeting who provided further insights into the study’s findings as well as omadacycline’s safety profile.