Cefminox sodium is a new cephamycin antibiotic(7α-methoxy-cephalosporin) for injection having a D-cysteine moiety in its 7β-side chain. In addition to the usual action mechanism of β-lactams, for example inhibition of peptidoglycan synthetase by binding to penicillin-binding proteins, cefminox sodium also inhibits cell wall synthesis by binding of lipoprotein in the outer membrane with peptidoglycan. This antibiotic is found to exerta strong and rapid lytic action on sensitive Gram negative bacteria such as E.coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Serratia marcescens and Salmonella enteritidis, and anaerobic bacteria.
We evaluated the effectiveness and the safety of cefminox sodium in 20 patients with lower respiratory tract infection superimposed on moderately advanced chronic lung diseases. By monotherapy of cefminox sodium, overall clinical effective rate was 70% and 66.7% of isolated pathogens were eradicated without significant side effect.