Balanced News Blog

British scientists are working on a drug which they say can destroy the most virulent strains of superbug MRSA.

Researchers at Brighton-based Destiny Pharma are testing the drug in the hope it can be used in hospitals by 2011.

Official figures show in the last three months of last year there were more than 1,000 cases of MRSA in England.

Campaign group MRSA Action cautiously welcomed the new findings and urged the government to provide more funding for research into fighting infections.

Pharmaceutical company Destiny Pharma believes its compound – codenamed XF-73 – could be a “breakthrough” in the battle against the hospital superbug.

A study of the new drug, which is applied as a gel into patients’ noses, showed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) did not develop resistance to the compound despite being exposed to it 55 times.

The company’s chief executive, Dr Bill Love, told the Independent on Sunday that if the drug passed its clinical trials, it would be a “completely fundamental breakthrough”.

“The potential is really quite amazing,” he said.

He added that he hoped NHS strategic health authorities would back the drug if it won the approval of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Source: BBC.