Cefuroxime axetil (Ceftin®): a brief review

✍ Scribed by Rachel Deanne Leder; Deborah Stier Carson

• Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 51 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1064-7449
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-0997(1997)5:3<211::aid-idog3>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

KEY WORDS cefuroxime axetil; antimicrobial; uncomplicated gonorrhea C efuroxime axetil (Ceftin, Glaxo Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, NC) is the oral prodrug formulation of the injectable antibiotic cefuroxime sodium. It has essentially the same antibacterial activity as its parent moiety, making cefuroxime the only second-generation cephalosporin with both an intravenous and oral formulation.

STRUCTURE AND DERIVATION

Cefuroxime axetil is the 1-acetoxyethyl ester of cefuroxime. The axetil salt renders the molecule more lipophilic, thus allowing enhanced oral absorption. Once cefuroxime axetil reaches the intestinal mucosa and portal blood flow it rapidly undergoes de-esterification to yield the active parent compound cefuroxime.