Don’t use it.
If you’re like me, every journal you pick up nowadays has a three page glossy fold-out of some confident-looking fake doctor showing off the new broad-spectrum magic medicine, ceftaroline fosamil (Teflaro). 600mg IV q12, ask your doctor if you should be receiving Teflaro.
So, finally, when I got a booklet mailed to my house, I gave in and looked at the literature. And, I was almost legitimately defeated by the literature because most of the recent, relevant published literature regarding outcomes in the phase III trials…is written by employees of Forest Laboratories and published in a special “clinical supplement” to an infectious disease journal. There isn’t much data out there that isn’t just advertising.
However, my survey of the animal studies, and presuming the human studies aren’t blatantly made up, seems to indicate this is a great antibiotic. It doesn’t work against VRE, pseudomonas, ESBL e. coli, ESBL klebsiella, or acinetobacter, but it’s active against many strains of MRSA, DNS MRSA, and VISA, along with the other strep and staph we worry about.
Which is exactly why we shouldn’t use this antibiotic – it’s so good it should be on every hospital’s formulary, but locked in a vault with the same key system a nuclear launch requires. Keep it as third- or fourth-line to prevent additional resistances. But, don’t use it.
Sadly, the article I have for you is just a review of all the manufacturer-supported data – but at least it’s not written by them.
“Ceftaroline: a comprehensive update.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21420284