This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Oral drug effective for treatment of CMV retinitis

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

NUTLEY, N.J. — An oral treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis is as effective as the standard intravenous treatment, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Availability of an oral agent for treatment of the opportunistic infection may offer patients more convenience and avoid the problems and costs associated with IV administration — frequent hospitalization and a chronic indwelling catheter — according to the drug’s manufacturer, based here.

Researchers compared Valcyte tablets (valganciclovir, Roche) to intravenous Cytovene (ganciclovir, Roche) as induction therapy for newly-diagnosed cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in 160 patients with AIDS. Patients were randomized to either oral valganciclovir or IV ganciclovir.

During the first 4 weeks, 64 of 71 patients on valganciclovir did not experience progression of CMV retinitis as measured by retinal photography. In the ganciclovir group, 63 of 70 patients did not experience any CMV retinitis progression.

Common adverse events included diarrhea, which occurred in 19% of the valganciclovir group and 10% of the ganciclovir group. The frequency and severity of adverse events were similar in the two groups.