Aprokam

I posted in the past about injecting antibiotics in the front of the eye to reduce post-cataract surgery infections (from a very very low rate to a very very VERY low rate). I wrote about how choosing vancomycin as the antibiotic might cause more harm in some patients, so it is very controversial whether it should be used or not. One antibiotic that doesn’t present other risks is an antibiotic called cefuroxime. Cefuroxime is available in other parts of the world as a manufactured product by a company called Thea pharmaceuticals. The brand name of cefuroxime is Aprokam. I recently heard that Thea pharmaceuticals applied to be able to use their products as an approved medication in the US based on previous studies that justify its use outside of the US, but that application was rejected. That means that our American patients don’t have the same access to safety that is available in other parts of the world, which is very disappointing. Since Thea is a small company, it can’t afford to do a big expensive trial on Aprokam to justify its use in the US. Even if they could, they’d probably then have to charge a lot of money for the medication (which they offer relatively cheaply right now). Unfortunately, these are the realities of how the drug approval works. It seems like a small difference because post-cataract surgery infections are so rare in the first place. The rate might be 1 in 5,000 or so, but I don’t want my patient to be that one.