New Delhi, December 8 (IANS). Experts have described the indigenous antibiotic Nafithromycin as a major achievement of scientists. According to him, Nafithromycin can play an important role in the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the country.
Nafithromycin has been developed by Indian pharmaceutical company Wockhardt with support from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). This medicine helps treat life-threatening bacterial pneumonia (CABP).
The drug, sold under the brand name ‘Miknaf’, is effective against CABP, which mainly affects children, the elderly and people with weak immunity.
Dr. Harshal R Salve, additional professor, Center for Community Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi, told IANS, the development of the indigenous antibiotic nafithromycin is a very important achievement by Indian scientists. The potential and innovation of nafithromycin will help doctors treat multi-drug resistant bacteria, while also targeting bacteria that cause respiratory infections.
He said that since respiratory infections are one of the most important hospital-acquired infections, this new antibiotic will be of great help in the infection management of hospitalized patients.
Nafithromycin is designed to combat both common and atypical drug-resistant bacteria, making it an important tool in addressing the global health crisis of resistance to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It claims to have superior safety, minimal side effects.
“It belongs to a class of antibiotics called macrolides that treat bacterial infections by preventing bacteria from making proteins,” he said. Which reflects India’s growing capabilities in pharmaceutical innovation.
It belongs to a class of antibiotics called macrolides that treat bacterial infections by stopping bacteria from making proteins.
The drug is 10 times more effective than current treatments like azithromycin and can cure patients in as little as three days.
“Macrolides are ‘tailor-made’ antibiotics for the management of pneumococcal infections in outpatient and hospital settings,” Dr Dhiren Gupta, head of pediatrics at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told IANS. Macrolides are the most misused class of antibiotics, which were also used extensively during the Covid era.
–IANS
MKS/KR
