Science / Medicine : Panel Urges OK of AIDS Blindness Drug

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee last week recommended approval of a drug used to treat an AIDS-related condition that can lead to blindness.

The panel of outside experts based its decision on new data that came from several recent studies conducted in the United States and other countries that found the drug ganciclovir is effective in treating cytomegalovirus retinitis in AIDS patients.

This is the second AIDS drug the advisory committee has recommended for approval in two days of hearings. The day before, the panel recommended approval of the aerosolized version of pentamidine to ward off initial and recurring bouts of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, which kills 60 % of AIDS patients.

Ganciclovir has been widely available to AIDS patients since November, when the FDA approved use of the drug for treatment of patients who were in the immediate, sight-threatening stage of cytomegalovirus retinitis.