Ceftibuten (Sch39720) is highly active against
Haemophilus influenza
,
Escherichia coli
,
Klebsiella
sp., and
Proteus
sp. and moderately active against
Serratia
sp. and
Streptococcus pyogenes
. Ceftibuten is relatively inactive against enterococci and staphylococci and is only weakly active against
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
and obligate anaerobes. It is also stable in the presence of most β-lactamase-producing organisms except β
Bacteroides fragilis
. Ceftibuten is very active against strains of the family
Enterobacteriaceae
(mean MIC for 90% of strains=0.25 μg/ml) but less active against
Campylobacterjejuni
(mean MIC for 90% of strains=16.0 μg/ml).
Ceftibuten, a biologically stableβ-lactam antibiotic, has been shown to be transported by the small peptide transport system, to have relatively high affinity for the carrier and to show clear stereoselective and proton-gradient dependent transport characteristics in rat intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles.