Omadacycline: A Potential Fluoroquinolone Replacement?

Jason Gallagher, PharmD: Omadacycline is another novel tetracycline that is being developed. This one is pursuing indications for complicated skin infections and for community-acquired pneumonia. Now, as a novel tetracycline, I kind of see it as a potential fluoroquinolone replacement in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and some other mixed infections such as the skin and soft tissue infections that have been developed.

With some of the warnings that have come out discouraging fluoroquinolone use for certain indications—warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration that are fairly strong—other options [are limited]. Now, many of those other options when they work, are cheap, inexpensive generic antibiotics that should be used. But for the more resistant infections, where sometimes something else is needed, omadacycline could potentially be an agent that we use, and it should be available orally which would be a significant plus compared with most of the other drugs that have been developed in the past 5 to 6 years.