Azithromycin

Azithromycin is an azalide, a subclass of macrolide antibiotic, used to treat bacterial infections including middle ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, traveler's diarrhea and sexually transmitted infections, and sometimes given alongside other drugs to treat malaria. It works by binding to the large subunit of the bacterial ribosome and blocking the translation of messenger RNA into protein, stopping bacterial growth. The drug was discovered in Croatia in 1980 by the pharmaceutical company Pliva, which patented it in 1981 and brought it to market with approval for medical use in 1988; Pliva licensed Pfizer exclusive sales rights across Western Europe and the United States in 1986, and Pfizer introduced it there under the brand name Zithromax in 1991, with patent protection expiring in 2005.