Cardboard packaging for colomycin

Empty cardboard packaging for 10 vials of colomycin (colistmethate solution) 2 million units, by TEVA UK Ltd, United Kingdom, 2016

Colomycin is an antibiotic based on colistimethate sodium and is given by injection. It is used for people with limited treatment options who also have a bacterial infection. Colistimethate sodium is the first line of defence for people with cystic fibrosis. CF causes a build of mucus in the lungs, causing increasing lung infections and inflammations, including that caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Almost everyone with CF will have this bacterial infection at some point in their lives.

Colistin based anitbiotics have been available since the 1950s, but their use quickly decreased due to the availability of antibiotics with fewer potential side effects. Due in part to this limited use, colistimethate sodium has retained activity against a number of bacteria which have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

However, its use for livestock has caused resistance to the antibiotic in humans and animals.