And it staved off a legal challenge to its American patent for Cipro, the antibiotic used to fight anthrax.
Its antibacterial compounds would need to be taken in much higher concentrations than amoxicillin, an antibiotic used for peptic ulcers.
Johnson & Johnson, which is based in New Brunswick, N.J., will gain OraPharma's Arestin, a time-released antibiotic used to treat periodontal disease.
It contained an antibiotic used to treat "foulbrood", a disease that afflicts bee larvae.
For the first time, a US patient has been infected with bacteria resistant to an antibiotic used as a last resort, scientists said Thursday.
Aisha's eyes filled with tears as she explained that she had been able to obtain only cotrimoxazole, an antibiotic used to treat opportunistic infections, for her little sister.
Internet pharmacies have begun to solicit clients for ciprofloxacin, the generic name for Cipro, the most common antibiotic used to treat anthrax.
More than a quarter say public health officials are wrong in advising people not to ask their own doctors for Cipro, an antibiotic used in treating anthrax.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld Bayer's American patent for Cipro, a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to fight systemic infections that respond to few other drugs.
After the Canadian government overrode Bayer's patent for Cipro, an antibiotic used to treat anthrax, some senators said the United States should follow Canada's lead.
The German drug company that makes the antibiotic used against anthrax, Cipro, said today that it was tripling production of the drug as public fears mounted.
