New antifungal as effective as existing drugs with fewer adverse events

A newly developed antifungal, isavuconazole, is as effective as an existing drug, voriconazole, against invasive mold disease in cancer patients with less adverse effects, according to Phase III clinical data presented at the 54th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), an infectious disease meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

Isavuconazole is an investigational once-daily intravenous and oral broad-spectrum antifungal being developed by Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503) under license from Switzerland’s Basilea Pharmaceutica (SIX: BSLN) for the treatment of life-threatening invasive fungal infections. Recently  Astellas submitted a New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration seeking approval for isavuconazole for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis (also known as zygomycosis).

Important new option of drug is approved