Source: Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (GB) Revision Year: 2019 Publisher: Aventis Pharma Limited, 410 Thames Valley Park Drive, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1PT, UK Trading as: Sanofi, 410 Thames Valley Park Drive, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1PT, UK
Pharmacotherapeutic group: third generation cephalosporin
ATC code: J01DD08
Cefixime is an oral third generation cephalosporin which has marked in vitro bactericidal activity against a wide variety of Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.
Clinical efficacy has been demonstrated in infections caused by commonly occurring pathogens including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella species, Haemophilus influenzae (beta-lactamase positive and negative), Branhamella catarrhalis (beta-lactamase positive and negative) and Enterobacter species. It is highly stable in the presence of beta-lactamase enzymes.
Most strains of enterococci (Streptococcus faecalis, group D Streptococci) and Staphylococci (including coagulase positive and negative strains and meticillin-resistant strains) are resistant to cefixime. In addition, most strains of Pseudomonas, Bacteroides fragilis, Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridia are resistant to cefixime.
The absolute oral bioavailability of cefixime is in the range of 22-54%. Absorption is not significantly modified by the presence of food. Cefixime may therefore be given without regard to meals.
From in vitro studies, serum or urine concentrations of 1 mcg/mL or greater were considered to be adequate for most common pathogens against which cefixime is active. Typically, the peak serum levels following the recommended adult or paediatric doses are between 1.5 and 3 mcg/mL. Little or no accumulation of cefixime occurs following multiple dosing.
The pharmacokinetics of cefixime in healthy elderly (age>64 years) and young volunteers (11-35) compared the administration of 400 mg doses once daily for 5 days. Mean Cmax and AUC values were slightly greater in the elderly. Elderly patients may be given the same dose as the general population.
Cefixime is predominantly eliminated as unchanged drug in the urine. Glomerular filtration is considered the predominant mechanism. Metabolites of cefixime have not been isolated from human serum or urine.
Serum protein binding is well characterised for human and animal sera; cefixime is almost exclusively bound to the albumin fraction, the mean free fraction being approximately 30%. Protein binding of cefixime is only concentration dependent in human serum at very high concentrations which are not seen following clinical dosing.
Transfer of 14C-labelled cefixime from lactating rats to their nursing offspring through breast milk was quantitatively small (approximately 1.5% of the mothers' body content of cefixime in the pup). No data are available on secretion of cefixime in human breast milk. Placetal transfer of cefixime was small in pregnant rats dosed with labelled cefixime.
There are no pre-clinical data of relevance to the prescriber which are additional to that already included in other sections of the Summary of Product Characteristics.
© All content on this website, including data entry, data processing, decision support tools, "RxReasoner" logo and graphics, is the intellectual property of RxReasoner and is protected by copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of any part of this content without explicit written permission from RxReasoner is strictly prohibited. Any third-party content used on this site is acknowledged and utilized under fair use principles.
