Pharmacokinetics of fosfomycin in patients with prophylactic treatment for recurrent Escherichia coli urinary tract infection

Objectives: To evaluate the pharmacokinetics and clinical effectiveness of IV and oral fosfomycin treatment in patients with recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI) with Escherichia coli.

Patients and methods: Patients with rUTI treated with 3 g of oral fosfomycin every 72 h for at Least 14 days were included in a prospective open-Label single-centre study. Serum samples were taken after oral and IV administration of fosfomycin. Urine was collected for 24 h on 3 consecutive days. Fosfomycin concentrations in serum and urine were analysed using validated LC-MS/MS. Pharmacokinetics were evaluated using a population model. EudraCT number 2018-000616-25.

Results: Twelve patients were included, of whom nine were also administered IV fosfomycin. Data were best described by a two-compartment model with Linear elimination and a transit-absorption compartment. Median values for absolute bioavailability and serum half-Life were 18% and 2.13 h, respectively. Geometric mean urine concentrations on Days 1, 2 and 3 were above an MIC of 8 mg/L after both oral and IV administration. Quality of Life reported on a scale of 1-10 increased from 5.1 to 7.4 (P= 0.001). The average score of UTI symptoms decreased after fosfomycin dosing (by 3.1 points, 95% CI = -0.7 to 7.0, P= 0.10).

Conclusions: Oral fosfomycin at 3 g every 72 h provides plasma and urine concentrations of fosfomycin above the MIC for E. coli. This pharmacokinetic model can be used to develop optimal dosing regimens of fosfomycin in patients with UTI.