The clinical positioning of telavancin in Europe

•Clinical experience with the lipoglycopeptide telavancin in Europe is limited.•Telavancin has potent in vitro activity against Gram-positive isolates, e.g. meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and glycopeptide-intermediate S. aureus (GISA).•Telavancin is non-inferior to vancomycin for nosocomial Gram-positive pneumonia.•Baseline moderate-to-severe renal impairment increases mortality risk of telavancin.•Where renal function permits, telavancin is an alternative to vancomycin or linezolid.