Promising Year Ahead for Optimer Pharma

Optimer Pharmaceuticals (OPTR) recently announced results from the phase III clinical study of fidaxomicin in patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea ((CDAD)) at the Digestive Disease Week 2009 conference in Chicago.

The data presented dealt with patient risk factors related to recurrence of CDAD following treatment. These risk factors include serum albumin levels, white blood cell ((WBC)) count and temperature, and non-BI (NAP1/027) strains. The data showed that overall, fidaxomicin demonstrated a lower recurrence rate compared to oral vancomycin (Vancocin ((R)), the only FDA approved drug for CDAD produced by Viro Pharma (VPHM) ) regardless of albumin levels, WBC count and temperature, as well as for patients with non-BI (NAP1/027) strains.