Theravance, Inc and Astellas Pharma US, Inc. announced the commercial launch of Vibativ (telavancin) in the United States. On September 11, 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vibativ for the treatment of adult patients with complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI) caused by susceptible Gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) strains. Vibativ is a bactericidal, once-daily injectable lipoglycopeptide antibiotic discovered by Theravance.

“The availability of Vibativ is wonderful news for clinicians treating MRSA infections,” said Dr Robert C Moellering, junior, Shields Warren-Mallinckrodt professor of Medical Research at Harvard Medical School and Emeritus Physician-in-chief and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “With the launch of Vibativ, physicians now have an important and welcome addition to the current armamentarium for the treatment of cSSSI. We desperately need new antimicrobial agents to bridge the therapeutic gap created by increasingly resistant microbes. Vibativ is specifically designed to solve this problem among resistant Gram-positive bacteria such as MRSA.”

Vibativ was discovered by Theravance in a research program dedicated to finding new antibiotics for
serious infections due to Staphylococcus aureus and other Gram-positive bacteria, including MRSA.