Shionogi & Co., Ltd. announced new data from the European real-world evidence study (PERSEUS) of Fetroja®/F etcroja® (cefiderocol), an innovative siderophore cephalosporin, for the treatment of critically ill patients with carbapenem-resistant (CR) Gram-negative (GN) bacterial infections at the 34th ECCMID Global (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, 27-30 April 2024. The PERSEUS study is a retrospective, multicenter, observational chart review study designed to describe the efficacy and safety of real-world cefiderocol use in adult patients with GN bacterial infections.1 The analysis found patients receiving cefiderocol achieved an overall clinical success rate (primary endpoint, defined as the composite of clinical cure and/or survival at Day 28) of 84.3% and a 28-day all-cause mortality of 21.5%. The majority of patients had respiratory tract infections (47.9%) caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (66.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.0%) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (7.7%) as principal pathogens.

Additionally,19.5% of patients had polymicrobial infections. The study included 261 critically ill adult patients with limited treatment options who received cefiderocol for less than 28 days as part of Shionogi?s Early Access Program in Spain. Of these, 64.8% were resistant to all tested antibiotics and 44.4% experienced treatment failure with prior antibiotics.

The patients received cefiderocol consecutively for =72 hours for a confirmed GN bacterial infection. The patients included in the analysis were critically ill with nearly two-thirds (63.2%) in the intensive care unit, 47.1% on mechanical ventilation and 28% with septic shock. In addition to GN bacterial infections, patients also had serious comorbidities including immunosuppression (30.3%), solid or hematological tumors (23.8%), diabetes (22.2%), transplant (20.7%), chronic renal disease (13.0%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (10.3%).

Across these 261 patients, cefiderocol was generally well tolerated with six patients experiencing an adverse drug reaction.