People have received great health care benefit from many kinds of anti-infectives since penicillin was found (A. Fleming, 1929) and developed (H. W. Florey et. al., 1941). However, there has been an alarming increase, recently, in the incidence of multidrug resistant infections that is limiting the utility of many standard agents, such as .beta.-lactams, macrolides and quinolones. For an example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus species are now co-resistant to essentially all other antibiotic classes. Multidrug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae is also one of the most important bacterial pathogens due to its frequency in upper and lower respiratory tract infections in both children and adults. S. pneumoniae is rapidly becoming resistant to all presently available therapies. Commonly prescribed anti-infectives such as .beta.-lactams and the current macrolides are no longer reliably effective.
These multidrug resistant bacteria are not limited to hospitals but also occur in a variety of human communities world-wide. In many cases, multidrug resistant infections can lead to potentially fatal conditions and require hospitalization. The emergence of such multidrug resistant bacteria prompted drug discovery programs. For example, dipeptides are described as new antibiotics with potent antibacterial activity against MRSA (R. M. Williams et al., J. Antibiotics, 51(2), 189-201, 1998). To provide a compound having good activity against various bacteria, including multidrug resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus sp., Streptococcus sp. and Enterococcus sp., is not only required by serious medical need, but by the overall health care cost savings achieved by minimizing treatment failures, laboratory testing, and hospitalization.
The object of the present invention is to provide furopyridine compounds which have good antibacterial activity against various bacteria, including multidrug resistant bacteria, and to provide a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same. A variety of furopyridine compounds are known. For example, in German patent publication DE 4218978 A1, furopyridine compounds are disclosed as liquid crystal materials. Also, International Publication Number WO 97/11076 discloses furopyridine compounds as fungicides.
Another object of the present invention is to provide processes for producing the furopyridine compounds.