FDA Grants Vicuron's Antibiotic Candidate Dalbavancin Priority Review

Vicuron Pharmaceuticals has been granted priority review status for its investigational agent dalbavancin, a novel once-weekly antibiotic for the treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue infections.

Dalbavancin is a novel second-generation lipoglycopeptide agent that belongs to the same class as vancomycin. Vancomycin is one of the few treatments available to hospital patients infected with difficult-to-treat strains of staphylococcus bacteria, including the most difficult to treat strain of staphylococcus, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.

The company said it expects to commercialize dalbavancin by the first quarter of 2006, pending FDA approval.