FDA Approves Optimer's Key Antibiotic Dificid

For Optimer, the FDA approval of Dificid is a key first. With an approved drug, the company can now plan to do something that many biotechs have never done--generate product revenue.

The FDA announced last Friday that it has approved San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals' antibiotic Dificid for treating diarrhea linked to C. diff infections.

The FDA said that more patients who took Dificid showed "a sustained cure" three weeks after finishing treatment on the antibiotic than those who took an older and previously approved antibiotic, vancomycin. That acknowledgement of superiority should help Optimer and the co-promoter of Dificid, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, hit the ground running with their sales launch this summer.