Phosphonoformic acid or foscarnet (Foscavir - Astra), a synthetic antiviral drug, has now been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for intravenous (IV) treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in patients with AIDS. CMV retinitis occurs in up to 30% of patients with AIDS and often causes blindness (MD de Smet and RB Nussenbatt, JAMA, 266:3019, Dec 4, 1991).

Amprenavir is the fifth protease inhibitor to become available for treatment of HIV infection. It was approved by the FDA for use with other drugs in the treatment of HIV-infected adults and children at least four years old.

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a common cause of death in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). PCP is the first serious opportunistic infection in more than 60% of patients with AIDS, and about 80% of AIDS patients develop PCP at least once (AE Glatt et al, N Engl J Med, 318:1439, June 2, 1988). Many studies using drugs to prevent PCP in patients with AIDS have recently been reported.

Ganciclovir sodium (Cytovene - Syntex), a synthetic antiviral nucleoside analog, is now available in the USA for intravenous treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in immunocompromised patients. CMV retinitis occurs in 20% to 25% of patients with AIDS.

Production of erythropoietin, a glycoprotein hormone secreted mainly by the kidney, is often low in patients with chronic renal failure (JW Eschbach, Kidney Int, 35:134, 1989). The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved marketing of epoetin alfa (Epogen - Amgen), a recombinant human erythropoietin, for treatment of anemia in such patients. Epoetin is commercially available in Europe as Eprex (Ortho), and Eprex is available from Ortho in the USA on an investigational basis for treatment of anemia related to AIDS. Epogen and Eprex are chemically...

Carnitine is a naturally occurring amino acid derivative essential for transport of long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria. It is advertised on the Internet as a dietary supplement that can promote weight loss, increase energy, enhance athletic performance and slow aging. Levocarnitine (Carnitor - Sigma-Tau) has been FDA approved for oral and parenteral treatment of primary carnitine deficiency since 1986. Products containing levocarnitine and its synthetic derivative acetyl-L-carnitine are available as dietary supplements in the US.

The FDA has approved emtricitabine/tenofovir (Truvada - Gilead) and abacavir/lamivudine (Epzicom - GSK), two new fixed-dose combinations of nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), for once-daily use in treatment of HIV infection. Two other fixed-dose NRTI combinations were previously approved for twice-daily dosing. Dual NRTI therapy is generally used in either an NNRTI (non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor)-based or a PI (protease inhibitor)-based regimen.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the marketing of G-CSF (recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, generic name filgrastim, Neupogen - Amgen) and GM-CSF (recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, generic name sargramostim, Leukine - Immunex, Prokine - Hoechst-Roussel). G-CSF is approved for use after cancer chemotherapy in patients with non-myeloid malignancies to decrease the incidence of infection. GM-CSF is approved for acceleration of myeloid recovery after autologous bone marrow transplantation in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,...

Combination antiretroviral therapy including protease inhibitors has dramatically changed the treatment of HIV infection and the prognosis of those affected (Medical Letter Handbook of Antimicrobial Therapy, 1998, page 122). Due to limitations and failures with these drugs in many patients, however, three new drugs, none of them protease inhibitors, have rapidly come into wide use in clinical trials or 'expanded access' programs. They are abacavir (Ziagen - Glaxo Wellcome), adefovir (Preveon - Gilead) and efavirenz (Sustiva - DuPont). Efavirenz was recently approved for treatment of...

Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus – Kite) has been approved by the FDA for treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It was previously approved for treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Tecartus is an individualized cellular product prepared from the patients own T cells, which are genetically modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) and then infused back into the patient. The CAR T-cell immunotherapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) was approved in 2017 for treatment of relapsed or refractory...