Liposome Technology Inc. (LTI) reported on safety and efficacydata for Amphocil, the company's lipid-complexed drugamphotericin B, at this week's 32nd Interscience Conference onAnti-Microbial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), held inAnaheim, Calif.

Amphotericin B is effective against life-threatening systemicfungal infections, but it's dangerous to use because of theserious side effects, including permanent impairment of renalfunction.

LTI of Menlo Park, Calif., has complexed this drug with lipids inan effort to reduce its toxicity while maintaining its efficacy.

The clinical data showed that this product is still slightly toxic.When Amphocil was used for treating invasive fungalinfections in marrow transplant patients, "infusion-relatedtoxicities ... were moderate but tolerable and non-infusionrelated reactions ... were mild," the company said. Physiciansparticipating in this study termed Amphocil's toxicity profile"acceptable." For treating coccidioidal infections, Amphocil'srenal toxicity was "relatively low" compared with thatassociated with conventional amphotericin B treatment.

The attending physicians reported that "symptomatic adverseevents generally decreased over time as therapy progressed."And in visceral leishmaniasis, physicians reported that "a 10-day treatment regimen results in 100 percent initial cure andonly modest toxicity."

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