Newer jS-Lactam Antibiotics

Among the newer jS-lactam antibiotics is faropenem with its unsaturated five-membered ring, it is structurally positioned between penicillins and cephalosporins. Like the carbapenem drugs, it possesses ahydroxyethyl side-chain with inherent stability against lactamases. Faropenem, market since 1997 by the 

Japanese firm Suntory, is orally available and active against a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. 

Following meropenem, a series of further carbapenems have meanwhile reached the market. They differ fi-om the former merely in their side-chains at C-2. These are well-behaved antibiotics, highly active for the treatment of complicated infections of the skin, soft tissue, abdomen and urinary tract. Doripenem acquired considerable importance for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia. [63] 

---