Take that, agribusiness!

Pharmaceutical-loving agribusiness corporations took a hard blow this week when the FDA officially rejected a proposed cattle antibiotic called Cefquinome.

The new drug (which was intended to be used to treat respiratory disease in cattle) will not be allowed on the commercial market, since the FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee (VMAC) turned it down after a hearing on Monday.

The hearing included testimonies from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Keep Antibiotics Working, the American Medical Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America. The groups argued that use of the antibiotic (which is very similar to cefepime, a drug used in human medicine) could foster the development of antibiotic resistant strains of E coli and Salmonella.

Let’s all take a moment to thank those four organizations, and also thank the FDA for listening to them. Although this decision does not affect the current over-use of antibiotics in US agriculture, it’s certainly a start.