Ceftobiprole for Community-Acquired Pneumonia is Breakthrough in Therapy

Implications: Cephalosporins have been standard therapy for pneumonia for many years, but to date this class of drug has been ineffective against MRSA.  Ceftobiprole appears to represent a breakthrough in this regard.  I would expect the drug to be well tolerated and, for the most part, to cause few major adverse effects.  However, the use of ceftriaxone as a comparator is odd, as this would not be used as monotherapy by most physicians in the USA for patients with CAP who are sick enough to warrant hospital admission.

Analysis: These top-line data on ceftobiprole appear impressive, most notably for the effectiveness of the drug against MRSA, an increasingly important and prevalent cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).  Though cephalosporins are widely used to treat pneumonia and a number of other infections, ceftobiprole would be the first of the drug class to be useful for treating MRSA.  The drug would, if similar to other cephalosporins, be expected to cause few major adverse effects and to be well tolerated.
The use of ceftriaxone as a comparator is odd, though.  Without linezolid, ceftriaxone would not often be used as monotherapy for CAP.  With linezolid the drug regimen might be seen occasionally, but would not be terribly common.  This is a reasonably minor criticism that doesn't detract significantly from the interest these ceftobiprole data should generate.