FDA clears 1st fecal transplant treatment for gut infection

By MATTHEW PERRONE
AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials approved the first pharmaceutical-grade version of the fecal transplant procedures that doctors have increasingly used to treat a potentially life-threatening intestinal infection. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the drug for adult patients at risk for reinfection with the infection commonly referred to as C. diff. The bacterial infection is particularly dangerous when it reoccurs and is linked to about 15,000 to 30.000 deaths a year. For more than a decade, some U.S. doctors have used stool samples from healthy donors to treat the condition. The new therapy from Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. is manufactured from stool donations by donors who are screened for dozens of conditions.