Glaxo Wellcome has written to UK doctors working with HIV patients to alert them to updated information about hypersensitivity reactions associated with its anti-HIV drug abacavir (Ziagen).
The letter, dated August 21, has been sent following a public statement about the reactions issued by the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) on August 14 (PJ, August 19, p259).
The EMEA's statement warned that hypersensitivity reactions had, rarely, occurred in patients restarting abacavir therapy who had previously shown no symptoms of hypersensitivity to the drug.
The letter from Glaxo Wellcome says that patients should be made aware of the possibility of a reaction and should be reminded to read the package leaflet and alert card included in the pack.
The company says that, in clinical trials, hypersensitivity reactions occurred in about 4 per cent of patients taking abacavir.