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Valganciclovir similar in safety to ganciclovir
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SAN FRANCISCO — Valganciclovir has shown a similar adverse event profile to intravenous and oral ganciclovir as maintenance therapy for cytomegalovirus retinitis in a safety study. Valganciclovir is an oral prodrug of ganciclovir.
Researchers evaluated a maintenance dose of 900 mg of valganciclovir once daily with induction doses of 900 mg of valganciclovir given twice daily as needed to treat CMV retinitis progression in 212 AIDS patients with CMV retinitis that had been previously treated.
After a mean treatment duration of 372 days, noted adverse events included diarrhea (35%), nausea (23%), fever (18%), anemia (12%) and neutropenia (10%). Intravenous catheter adverse events were uncommon and lower than previously reported for IV ganciclovir.
Progression of CMV retinitis occurred in 17% of patients, usually associated with lowered CD4 cell counts.
The study is published in the August issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.