An update on cefepime and its future role in combination with novel β-lactamase inhibitors for MDR Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa–—authors’ response

We thank Nicolau et al.1 for their highly insightful comments on our paper.2 We agree that cefepime/zidebactam differs from classical β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations and that cefepime/zidebactam likely does have potential utility against MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. In vivo data generated in the studies by Monogue et al.3 and Kidd et al.4 are promising and support the ongoing efforts for testing cefepime/zidebactam efficacy in clinical studies. Although most P. aeruginosa isolates with elevated cefepime/zidebactam MICs were inhibited by human-simulated regimens of cefepime/zidebactam in those animal studies, clinical efficacy of cefepime/zidebactam against human infections caused by MDR P. aeruginosa isolates with cefepime/zidebactam MICs greater than that of cefepime would be best determined in randomized controlled clinical trials. We also thank Nicolau et al.1 for noticing that three references5–7 describing cefepime/zidebactam activity against Acinetobacter baumannii were mistakenly used in our paper. Finally, we...