Azithromycin usage resulted in less treatment failure in AECOPD which was driven by lower readmission rates and prescription of new antimicrobials, suggests a recent research carried out by a team of scientists at Department of Pharmacy, Ascension St. John Hospital, Detroit. The research findings, published in PubMed, also observed how beta-lactams continued to demonstrate a higher risk for treatment failure. The researchers wrote that they analysed 595 patients, of which 428 (72%) received azithromycin and 167 patients (28%) received a beta-lactam to find that the composite primary outcome, which was treatment failure in rate in patients, occurred in 84 patients (19.6%) in the azithromycin group and 54 (32.3%) in the beta-lactam group.