Bayer to pull poultry antibiotic

WASHINGTON - For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has succeeded in forcing off the market an antibiotic used to treat animals because of concerns that it would make similar antibiotics less effective in treating people.

After a five-year battle, Bayer said yesterday it would immediately stop selling its poultry antibiotic Baytril, a close relative to its widely used human antibiotic Cipro. The company could have appealed the FDA ban on the drug to a federal court but instead decided to comply.

"We disagree with the FDA's conclusion about our drug," said Bayer spokesman Robert Walker. "But we understand they made a scientific decision, and courts tend to defer back to the agency."

Source: Seattle Times

9 September 2005