Cepheid Advances Rapid CPE Diagnostics as Zoliflodacin Gains Thailand Approval to Combat AMR

Cepheid’s vice‑president of Value and Access, Anne Beaubrun, and the Fleming Initiative’s executive director, Amish Acharya, discussed the TRACE‑CPE collaboration, which aims to identify carbapenemase‑producing Enterobacterales (CPE) up to two days earlier than conventional culture. Faster detection is expected to curb transmission, improve antimicrobial stewardship and reshape infection‑prevention practices in the UK, where 22,237 CPE episodes were recorded between October 2020 and March 2025. In the United States, CPE cause more than 12,700 infections annually.

Separately, the oral antibiotic zoliflodacin received its first licence in Thailand six months after U.S. approval, marking a break from the usual pattern of new antibiotics launching first in high‑income markets. Zoliflodacin is the first drug specifically developed for gonorrhoea and remains effective against multi‑drug‑resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains, including those resistant to ceftriaxone. With an estimated 82 million new gonorrhoea infections each year, the drug’s early availability in Asia is seen as a major step forward in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance.