Optimer surges on antibiotic data

Optimer Pharmaceuticals' stock surged on news that the company's anti-infective drug OPT-80 outperformed ViroPharma's Vancocin in a late-stage trial. Vancocin is currently the only approved treatment for clostridium difficile, a communicable disease that causes infectious diarrhea in about 3 million hospital patients annually.

A clinical cure was achieved in 92.1 of patients treated with OPT-80, compared to 89.8 percent of patients taking Vancocin. In addition, only 13.3 percent of patients treated with OPT-80 experienced a recurrence versus 24 percent for Vancocin.

"I believe OPT-80 will be an important therapeutic option for CDI, an infection that currently has limited treatment options and affects more than 500,000 patients in the United States annually with growing incidence worldwide," said Michael N. Chang, Optimer's CEO. "Our next step is to complete the on-going second Phase 3 study at clinical sites in Europe and North America to support an NDA filing."

- see Optimer's release

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