NIAID today announced the award of two new five-year contracts to study whether selected oral, off-patent antibiotics can effectively treat uncomplicated cases of skin and soft tissue infections caused by community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) bacteria. If so, doctors could use those antibiotics first in an effort to dampen the development of resistance to such last-resort antibiotics as vancomycin.