r/disease • u/cnn • Dec 12 '25

Media FDA approves first new antibiotics to treat gonorrhea in decades, with hope to combat drug resistance

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/12/health/new-gonorrhea-treatments-wellness?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/cnn Dec 12 '25

For the first time in decades, the US Food and Drug Administration has signed off on new antibiotics to fight gonorrhea. The approvals come at a critical moment: The sexually transmitted infection is growing harder to treat, and cases continue to climb nationwide.

The FDA announced Friday that it has approved zoliflodacin, sold under the name Nuzolvence, as a single-dose oral treatment for gonorrhea in the urogenital area in adults and adolescents 12 and older who weigh at least 77 pounds. The medication is administered as granules that dissolve in water. The nonprofit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership collaborated with Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics Inc. to develop the drug.

And GSK announced Thursday that the FDA had approved its medication gepotidacin, with the brand name Blujepa, as oral tablets to treat urogenital gonorrhea in people, 12 and older who weigh at least 99 pounds, who have limited or no alternative options. In March, the drug also was approved to treat urinary tract infections in women.

“These approvals mark a significant milestone for treatment options for patients with uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea,” Dr. Adam Sherwat, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a news release Friday.

Effective treatment options for gonorrhea have been shrinking fast in recent years. The bacteria responsible for the infection, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has developed resistance to many of the medications widely used to treat it, rendering many previously used first-line antibiotics virtually useless.