IN-VITRO ACTIVITY OF ISEPAMICIN (SCH-21420), A NEW AMINOGLYCOSIDE

The narrow therapeutic/toxic ratio of existing aminoglycosides has led to a search for safer drugs of this class. Isepamicin is a semi-synth etic aminoglycoside with a significantly low nephro as well as ototoxi city in animals and which is expected to have a clinical efficacy comp arable to that of amikacin. We therefore compared its antibacterial ac tivity with amikacin against 817 recent clinical isolates of gram-posi tive and gram-negative bacteria. The in vitro activity of isepamicin w as comparable or slightly greater than amikacin against Staphylococcus aureus and most Enterobacteriaceae. However, it was significantly mor e inhibitory towards Serratia marcescens, Enterobacter and Klebsiella pneumoniae.