Dalbavancin is a novel second-generation lipoglycopeptide

Glycopeptide antibiotic

Glycopeptide antibiotics are a class of antibiotic drugs. The class is composed of glycosylated cyclic or polycyclic nonribosomal peptides. Significant glycopeptide antibiotics include vancomycin, teicoplanin, telavancin, bleomycin, ramoplanin, and decaplanin....

 antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

. It belongs to the same class as vancomycin

Vancomycin

Vancomycin INN is a glycopeptide antibiotic used in the prophylaxis and treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. It has traditionally been reserved as a drug of "last resort", used only after treatment with other antibiotics had failed, although the emergence of...

, the most widely-used and one of the few treatments available to patients infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus...

 (MRSA).

Dalbavancin (BI397) is a novel semisynthetic lipoglycopeptide that was designed to improve upon the natural glycopeptide

Glycopeptide

Glycopeptides are peptides that contain carbohydrate moieties covalently attached to the side chains of the amino acid residues that constitute the peptide. Over the past few decades it has been recognised that glycans on cell surface and those bound to proteins play a critical role in biology...

s currently available, vancomycin

Vancomycin

Vancomycin INN is a glycopeptide antibiotic used in the prophylaxis and treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. It has traditionally been reserved as a drug of "last resort", used only after treatment with other antibiotics had failed, although the emergence of...

 and teicoplanin

Teicoplanin

Teicoplanin is an antibiotic used in the prophylaxis and treatment of serious infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis. It is a glycopeptide antibiotic extracted from Actinoplanes teichomyceticus, with a similar...

.

It possesses in vitro activity against a variety of Gram-positive

Gram-positive

Gram-positive bacteria are those that are stained dark blue or violet by Gram staining. This is in contrast to Gram-negative bacteria, which cannot retain the crystal violet stain, instead taking up the counterstain and appearing red or pink...

 pathogens including MRSA and MRSE

MRSE

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis is a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans. Like MRSA which is a resistant variation of the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, MRSE is a resistant variation of the common bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis. It has...

. It is a once-weekly, two-dose antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

 that Pfizer

Pfizer

Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...

 acquired when it bought Vicuron Pharmaceuticals in 2005.

Clinical progress

Dalbavancin has undergone a phase III clinical trial for adults with complicated skin infections, but in Dec 2007 the FDA said more data was needed before approval. On September 9, 2008, Pfizer announced that it will withdraw all marketing applications in order to conduct another Phase 3 clinical trial. Durata Therapeutics

Durata Therapeutics

Durata Therapeutics, established in 2009, is a clinical development stage pharmaceutical company. Durata focuses on new therapeutics to treat infectious diseases....

acquired the rights to dalbavancin in December 2009 and has initiated two new Phase III clinical trials for treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.