Via Forbes.com comes news that the Food and Drug Administration has turned back Targanta Therapeutics‘ application for its new antibiotic oritavancin, which was designed specifically to target drug-resistant staph, and has asked for additional trials. This is a follow-on to a decision by an FDA advisory panel last month that also expressed doubt about the drug.

This comes on the heels of last month’s withdrawal of dalbavancin and delay in approval of ceftobiprole.

The long, thin pipeline of new drugs for MRSA just got longer and thinner.