The first new treatments for gonorrhoea in decades have been approved by US regulators, raising hopes of a breakthrough against rising drug-resistant strains of the infection.
Gonorrhoea causes more than 82 million infections worldwide each year, with cases at record highs in England and tripling across Europe since 2014. Health officials are increasingly alarmed by resistance to existing antibiotics, prompting the World Health Organization to classify the disease as a priority pathogen.
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved two new antibiotics shown to be effective against resistant gonorrhoea. One, zoliflodacin (brand name Nuzolvence), was approved on 12 December after trials showed it cured more than 90% of genital infections. Another, gepotidacin, developed by GSK, was approved a day earlier following successful trial results against drug-resistant strains.
WHO officials said the approvals were timely given the sharp rise in resistance to current frontline drugs. Resistance to ceftriaxone and cefixime, the main treatments, increased markedly between 2022 and 2024, according to global surveillance data.
Zoliflodacin was developed through a not-for-profit partnership between the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) and Innoviva. GARDP will oversee access in low- and middle-income countries, where the disease burden is highest.
Researchers say the availability of single-dose oral treatments could significantly improve control of gonorrhoea and slow the spread of highly resistant strains, though they stress that careful use will be essential to preserve their effectiveness.
