In light of the renewed controversy and public health
significance regarding optimal treatment for Gram-positive
HAP, we present the largest systematic review and
meta-analysis on the efficacy and safety of linezolid versus
vancomycin incorporating these new studies. Our study
has long-term implications for two reasons: (1) the cumulative
number of patients and events now available for analysis
(4026) allow close to 100% statistical power to detect a
difference in mortality outcome between these two treatments,
that is, it is unlikely that any future trial would add
clinically meaningful information, and (2) the manufacturer
(Pfizer) does not plan to perform any more randomised
trials with either drug