AIDS TREATMENT UPDATE Issue 26 - Feburary 1995
Edward King

oral ganciclovir was approved by the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines as maintenance therapy for CMV retinitis. Previously, people who had had an episode of retinitis successfully stabilised with intravenous (IV) ganciclovir or foscarnet had to receive daily IV infusions to prevent relapses. In most cases people receiving IV maintenance therapy have to have permanent catheters surgically implanted to allow them to treat themselves; in addition to the inconvenience of this, there is a significant risk that the catheter will become infected. Trials suggest that the capsule-form of ganciclovir is slightly less effective at preventing relapses than IV ganciclovir, so Syntex, manufacturer of ganciclovir, recommends that the capsules be used only by people "for whom the risk of more rapid disease progression is balanced by the benefits associated with avoiding daily IV infusions". The drug has also been approved in the USA and Switzerland, but has not yet been formally launched onto the market due to problems at Syntex's new manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico. In the meantime it is available in the UK through an expanded access programme; for more information doctors should contact Syntex's Maidenhead offices.

* Integrase

US researchers have finally succeeded in understanding the structure of a key HIV enzyme, which may open the door to the development of an entirely new class of anti-HIV drugs. The enzyme, integrase, allows HIV to insert its DNA into the genetic material of the cells it infects, an essential step in its lifecycle. Drugs that attack the other two HIV enzymes - reverse transcriptase with drugs like AZT, and protease with experimental inhibitors such as saquinavir - have already been developed. The new research raises the hope that integrase inhibitors could enter trials within the next two years.

* Yokohama report

The European Forum on HIV/AIDS, Children and Families has published a report on the Tenth International Conference on AIDS held in Yokohama, Japan, last August. Copies are available for £3.50 from Book Sales, National Children's Bureau, 8 Wakley Street, London EC1V 7QE.

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