Voriconazole (Pfizer ltd).

Voriconazole is undergoing phase III trials by Pfizer as a potential treatment for resistant systemic aspergillosis, candidosis and other emerging fungal infections seen in immunocompromised patients [201603,320737]. The compound demonstrated efficacy in patients in whom amphotericin had failed to control infection [167646]. Voriconazole is effective and well-tolerated in the treatment of neutropenic patients with acute invasive aspergillosis [187877], non-neutropenic patients with chronic invasive aspergillosis [187878] and HIV patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis [187866]. Clinical efficacy in these trials was at least 69%. In vitro studies presented at the Ninth European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Germany, 1999) showed the compound to be the most active in a series of comparator agents against certain Scedosporium species [320536]. Pfizer claims that the compound has an extended spectrum of activity compared to Diflucan. Voriconazole is claimed to be effective against yeast and mould infections and can thus be applied against infections of the eye and brain [322370]. In December 1998, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter predicted sales of US$60 million in 2001, rising to US$175 million in 2005 [315350].