KAW press release urging Schering-Plough to withdraw its application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the approval of cefquinome to treat respiratory disease in cattle. Approval of this antibiotic could put human patients at risk when treated with similar, critically important drugs.

In September, 2006, the FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee recommended against approving the antibiotic, yet the application still has not been formally rejected by the FDA or withdrawn by Schering-Plough. Cefquinome is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, a class of antibiotics highly valued in human medicine as a treatment for life-threatening infections, many of which are resistant to other antibiotics.