Merck's Bezlotoxumab Prevents Recurrence Risk of Clostridium Difficile - The Market Business

An experimental antibody that was developed by Merck & Co was shown in important late stage studies to lower the risk by 10% that Clostridium difficile bacterium would recur. The bacterium can cause a diarrhea that can be deadly. In the U.S., C.difficile infects close to 500,000 people annually and contributes to close to 29,000 deaths. The infection can be treated through using standard antibiotics, which also can result in eliminating the friendly bacteria that normally keeps the C. difficile in control.

Merck announced that two studies in Phase 3 presented this past Sunday in San Diego showed that 12 weeks of treatment using antibiotics and an infusion just once of bezlotoxumab, which is designed to block the toxin’s ability to bind to cells, lowered to around 15% the risk that the infection would recur.

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