The bacterium that causes gonorrhea has been steamrolling its way through all the antibiotics available to treat it, with a single drug, ceftriaxone, left struggling to quell infections.

On Thursday, help arrived.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a supplemental approval for GSK’s Blujepa — the brand name for the drug gepotidacin — as a treatment for uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea. Blujepa was approved in March of this year for treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women and adolescents 12 years of age and older.

The drug is from a new class of antibiotics, the first new class in decades to be approved as a treatment for gonorrhea, which is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

“We’re proud to have delivered the first new class of antibiotics for gon

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