Study Shows Telithromycin Superior to Standard Antibiotic Therapy for CAP

Data from the community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) outcome in high bacterial resistance areas (COBRA) study, a randomized clinical superiority trial, showed that the clinical efficacy of telithromycin (marketed as KETEK) in outpatients with CAP is superior to that of local standard first-line oral antibiotic therapy in areas with a high prevalence of penicillin or macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumonia.

The clinical cure rate with telithromycin was 7.2 percent higher than the overall clinical cure rate with comparator antibiotics. The COBRA study is a Phase IV clinical trial designed to compare the efficacy and safety of telithromycin to other standard, single agent antibiotics, such as B-lactams, cephalosporins, macrolides and quinolones, in outpatients with mild-to-moderate CAP in areas with a high prevalence of penicillin and erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae isolates. The study enrolled 505 patients from Italy, Spain, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Hungary, Thailand, South Africa, Singapore, Tunisia, and Greece and was completed in June 2004.