ABLC Effective In Serious Fungal Disease

The Liposome Company's ABLC (amphotericin-B lipid complex) is effective in patients with several serious systemic fungal infections which do not respond to standard therapies, according to data presented at the 34th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

ABLC achieved a high success rate (defined as a cure or improvement in symptoms), and was well-tolerated, with less than 10% of patients discontinued from therapy because of side effects. This rate is much higher with non-encapsulated amphotericin B, which is often associated with dose-limiting nephrotoxicity. More than 200 patients, many of whom were immunocompromised, were enrolled into the study and received ABLC under an emergency-use protocol. Infections included serious candidiasis, aspergillosis, cryptococcosis and fusariosis.

In a further study concentrating on patients with fusariosis, seven out of eight patients who received ABLC responded, which corresponds to a clinical response rate of 87.5%. As in the other study, all patients had failed conventional therapy. ABLC is currently in trials for invasive aspergillosis and as a first-line therapy of suspected fungal infections in cancer chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant patients. Marketing applications for the drug have been filed in several countries.