Significantly more elderly patients treated with the Bayer drug Avelox (moxifloxacin HCl) for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) recovered at days three to five of a seven to 14 day course of treatment than those treated with Levaquin (levofloxacin), according to results of a clinical study published in the current issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Results of the clinical study, called CAPRIE (Community-Acquired Pneumonia Recovery In the Elderly), showed no significant difference between the two treatments with regard to cardiac safety, the primary endpoint of the study, or clinical cure rates five to 21 days after the end of treatment, the primary efficacy endpoint.
Additional analyses examined cure rates across CAP severity and age subgroups, including mild to moderate CAP, severe CAP, CAP in patients 65-74 years of age, and CAP in patients 75 years of age or older. Patients treated with Avelox achieved a cure rate of 90% or greater in all CAP severity and age subgroups. The rates of investigator-reported drug-related adverse events in the study were similar for both treatment regimens.
“The CAPRIE study findings not only reinforce that Avelox is an effective and safe treatment option for elderly patients with CAP, but also show that more patients taking Avelox recovered at days 3 to 5 compared to patients taking Levaquin,” said Dr Antonio Anzueto, lead study author and associate professor of medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio.
Avelox was developed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals and is marketed in the US by Schering-Plough.