Wyeth seeks OK to market Tygacil for pneumonia

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Wyeth WYE.N on Wednesday said it has asked U.S. regulators to approve use of its already marketed Tygacil antibiotic as a treatment for pneumonia contracted outside of hospitals and nursing homes.

Wyeth said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had accepted its application to market the intravenous drug for the lung infections, which affect more than 5 million Americans each year, formally known as community-acquired pneumonia.

The company said two clinical trials showed Tygacil cured about 90 percent of patients hospitalized with such pneumonias. That compared with a cure rate of about 86 percent for patients taking levofloxacin, a widely used treatment sold by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) under the brand name Levaquin.

Tygacil, whose chemical name is tigecycline, was approved in mid-2005 for treatment of intra-abdominal infections and complicated skin and skin structure infections in adults.

It is a member a family of antibiotics called glycylcyclines, which are effective against a number of bacteria that have developed resistance to other antibiotics.

Shares of Wyeth were down 6 cents at $47.78 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, amid a moderate decline for the drug sector.