Drug for AIDS Patients’ Vision Safe Taken Orally, Study Says
<i> From Times staff and wire reports</i>
Ganciclovir, a drug usually given intravenously to AIDS patients to fight sight-destroying infection, is safe and effective when taken orally, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In tests on 123 volunteers in the United States and Canada with the eye infection cytomegalovirus retinitis, a team led by Lawrence Drew of UC San Francisco found that ganciclovir capsules worked almost as well as intravenous treatment and involved fewer complications.
The study suggests that once treatment with the intravenous drug has stabilized the condition, most patients can be switched to the oral form, which is sold under the brand name Cytovene by Hoffmann LaRoche.
