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MALVERN, Pa., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Arlington Medical Resources (AMR), a provider of premier market intelligence for the pharmaceutical and diagnostic imaging industries, finds that in the January -- June 2008 time period, the carbapenem drug class in hospital inpatient courses in Europe has grown seven percent compared to the January -- June 2007 time period. These antibiotics are commonly used to treat lower respiratory infections, systemic infections, abdominal/pelvic infections and GI/biliary infections.

"Among carbapenem antibiotics Merck's Primaxin/Tienam (imipenem/cilastatin) has the largest share of courses (54 percent), followed by AstraZeneca's Merrem/Meronem (meropenem) (36 percent) and Merck's Invanz (ertapenem injectable) (10 percent)," stated Joyce Wedemeyer, product director at AMR. "These shares are consistent with our prior audit for the January -- June 2007 time period."

The newly released European edition of The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide also finds that just over one-third of all carbapenem courses are used as documented/confirmed therapy. Inpatients treated with a carbapenem course in a documented/confirmed case are most commonly associated with escherichia coli (29 percent of documented courses), pseudomonas aeruginosa (20 percent), methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus (9 percent) and enterococcus faecalis (8 percent).

Why Pharmaceutical Companies Need this Information

The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide enables pharmaceutical companies to monitor patient shares, costs, infectious disease prevalence and the clinical use of antibiotics in acute care hospitals. In addition, pathogen-level details are available for those inpatient antibiotic drug courses associated with positive microbiological culture results.

About The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide

The Hospital Antibiotic Market Guide is the industry's most comprehensive audit of inpatient antibiotic usage covering acute care hospitals in the United States, Italy, Germany, France, U.K. and Spain. The information in the audit is abstracted directly from hospital source documents from a panel of demographically representative acute care hospitals of all sizes, including transplant centers. The U.S. data is published twice a year and the European data is published once a year.

About AMR

AMR (http://www.AMR-data.com) serves the market intelligence needs of the pharmaceutical and diagnostic imaging industries. Research includes clinical inpatient databases that directly link anti-infective drug with indication/procedure, formulary and stocking status tracking studies, drug purchasing audits and diagnostic imaging procedure volume/contrast media usage audits. AMR is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.

About Decision Resources, Inc.

Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions. Please visit Decision Resources, Inc. at http://www.DecisionResourcesInc.com.

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    Natalia Morales                           Elizabeth Marshall
    Decision Resources                        Decision Resources, Inc.
    781-296-2691                              781-296-2563
    nmorales@dresources.com                   emarshall@dresources.com