When 28-year-old Sahil Mehra* from Mumbai was at the verge of kidney failure, and running out of option, a new lifeline came to him, in form of a breakthrough medicine. Mehra was diagnosed with a severe urinary tract infection, caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is one of the toughest superbugs known to medicine. It has a history of resisting every antibiotic available. Last-resort drugs like colistin and polymyxins also barely held the infection at bay while worsening his kidney function. Dr Tanu Singhal, a consultant-pediatrics and infectious diseases at Kokilaben Hospital, Mumbai said, "We were running out of time," reports TOI.Also Read: Fact Check: Do Stronger Thigh Muscles Really Mean That You Live Longer? It was the breakthrough of Zaynich, a combination of Cefepime + Zidebactam that the doctors had secured access to. This was India's first new antibiotic in more than three decades. Within four days, Mehra's fever subsided, and his infection markers fell, with his kidneys now stabilized. Soon, he was discharged. A similar case is of a 36-year-old woman who was battling a malignant ear infection, caused by a multidrug-resistant-organism, that threated to spread to her skull base and brain. Despite eight weeks of antibiotics, there was no improvement. However, after a 10-day regimen of Zaynich, her symptoms eased, and the infection cleared. Even abroad too, there have been promising results. At St Jude's Hospital in Memphis, USA, a 15-year-old leukemia patient with a life-threatening infection caused by NDM-producing E. coli recovered after 41 days on Zaynich. Before that, the patient witnessed failure of nine other antibiotics. As of now, 51 patients, worldwide, are successfully treated. What Makes Zaynich So Different?It is developed by Mumbai-based Wockhardt, and is now hailed as the first-in-class antibiotic. This is the first of its kind globally, in over 30 years. It is a combination of two medicines, including: Cefepime: a fourth-generation cephalosporin that disrupts bacterial cell wall synthesis.Zidebactam: a novel β-lactam enhancer that restores and boosts cefepime’s effectiveness.Together, they disable bacterian defence enzymes while directly targeting critical bacterial protein. There are several studies to that point towards 97% effectives against drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. It also includes hospital-acquired pneumonia. In the phase 3 trials, it also outperformed Meropenem, which is a gold standard antibiotic, with a 20% higher cure rate. Why Is It Essential?India remains one of the worst-hit countries by antimicrobial resistance, which is spreading like silent pandemic in hospitals, and communities alike. The main concern that India and the world faces today are carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter. For For CR Klebsiella and E. coli, there had been some options, however, for Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter, only polymyxins worked, and that too not very effectively. This is what makes Zaynich life-saving.Wockhardt plans to launch Zaynich in India later this year, pending approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).*Names have been changed to protect the identity.
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