Dalbavancin is an intravenous lipoglycopeptide with activity against Gram-positive pathogens and an MIC 90 for Staphylococcus aureus of 0.06 g/ml. With a terminal half-life of >14 days, dosing regimens with infrequent parenteral administration become available to treat infectious diseases such as osteomyelitis and endocarditis that otherwise require daily dosing for many weeks. In order to support a rationale for these novel regimens, the pharmacokinetics over an extended dosing interval and the distribution of dalbavancin into bone and articular tissue were studied in two phase I trials and pharmacokinetic modeling was performed. Intravenous administration of 1,000 mg of dalbavancin on day 1 followed by 500 mg weekly for seven additional weeks was well tolerated and did not demonstrate evidence of drug accumulation. In a separate study, dalbavancin concentrations in cortical bone 12 h after infusion of a single 1,000-mg intravenous infusion were 6.3 g/g and 2 weeks later were 4.1 g/g. A twodose, once-weekly regimen that would provide tissue exposure over the dalbavancin MIC for Staphylococcus aureus for 8 weeks, maximizing the initial exposure to treatment while minimizing the frequency of intravenous therapy, is proposed. Osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone associated with either hematogenous dissemination or direct inoculation as a consequence of trauma or infection from contiguous tissues. Its presentation may be either acute or chronic. The most common pathogen responsible for acute infection in adults is Staphylococcus aureus, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, and Escherichia coli also involved in traumatic infections and chronic presentations. Infection in children occurs less frequently and is predominantly a result of bacteremia with S. aureus and infection in the growth plate (1). Treatment regimens extend for 4 to 6 weeks, with durations as long as 8 weeks recommended for treatment of infection due to methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (2). Commonly used therapies include cefazolin, oxacillin, or vancomycin for coverage of Gram-positive pathogens and cephalosporins, carbapenems, and the ␤-lactamase inhibitor agents for treatment of Gram-negative pathogens (2,3). No other therapies in recent times have received FDA approval.Because the incidence of MRSA in the community in the United States is as high as 40% (4), empirical treatment of osteomyelitis now requires consideration of antimicrobial coverage of this organism, typically with vancomycin. Vancomycin has been demonstrated to be active in animal models of osteomyelitis (5). Concentrations in bone from 2.7 to 9.3 g/ml have been documented (6, 7), exceeding the vancomycin MIC 90 for S. aureus of 1 g/ml (8). Because of the wide variety of underlying etiologies and comorbidities associated with osteomyelitis, it is difficult to generalize the rates of clinical success from clinical trials, but one study documented a clinical response in 10/15 patients after continuous intravenous (i.v.) infusion of vancomycin (9). Long-term d...

The objective of this study was to establish effects of liraglutide on the QTc interval. In this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study, 51 healthy participants were administered placebo, 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 mg liraglutide once daily for 7 days each. Electrocardiograms were recorded periodically over 24 hours at the end of placebo and highest dosing periods. Four different models for QT correction were used: QTci, as the primary endpoint, and QTciL, QTcF, and QTcB as secondary endpoints. The upper bound of the 1-sided 95% confidence interval for time-matched, baseline-corrected, placebo-subtracted QTc intervals was <10 ms for all 4 correction methods. Moxifloxacin (400 mg) increased QTc intervals by 10.6 to 12.3 ms at 2 hours. There was no concentration-exposure dependency on QTc interval changes by liraglutide and no QTc thresholds above 500 ms or QTc increases >60 ms. The authors conclude that liraglutide caused no clinically relevant increases in the QTc interval.

This TQT study demonstrated a favorable cardiac safety profile of rasagiline.

In this randomized double-blind study, 4 groups of healthy subjects (50 per arm) participated to evaluate the effect of laquinimod, an oral treatment in development for multiple sclerosis and Huntington disease, on the QTc interval. Subjects received a dose of either 0.6 or 1.2 mg/day laquinimod for 14 days, placebo for 14 days, or 13 days of placebo followed by a dose of 400 mg moxifloxacin on day 14. Continuous 12-lead electrocardiograms were recorded on day -1 (baseline) and days 14 to 17,  and quadruplicate electrocardiograms were extracted at predefined time points. The primary measure was time-matched change from baseline in individual QTc (QTcI), and an analysis of variance was conducted on the placebo-corrected change from baseline data (ddQTcI). Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic and safety assessments were included. Results showed that the upper limits of the 2-sided 90%CI for ddQTcI for both laquinimod doses were below 10 millisconds at all time points, whereas lower limits for moxifloxacin were above 5 milliseconds. No notable changes in ECG parameters were observed. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis showed no positive correlation between laquinimod plasma levels and QTcI. In conclusion, laquinimod was not found to affect cardiac repolarization or to cause prolongation of QTcI at doses of 0.6 and 1.2 mg/day.

The findings from the present study suggest that HPβCD-diclofenac does not have a dose-dependent effect in the in vitro hERG assay system and does not produce proarrhythmic QTc prolongation in vivo. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01812538.