A Plain Language Summary on Preventing Fungal Infections with Isavuconazole in People With Blood-Related Conditions

Abstract

What is this summary about?

People with blood-related conditions have a higher chance of getting invasive fungal infections (IFIs). IFIs are severe fungal infections that can lead to death. Only a few medications, known as antifungals, exist that can be used to prevent IFIs, and sometimes they can cause very bad side effects. Isavuconazole is an antifungal which has been approved to treat IFIs, but it has not been approved to prevent IFIs. In this study, we reviewed published studies that looked at how well isavuconazole prevented IFIs in people who have a higher chance of getting IFIs.

What were the results?

This review showed that isavuconazole could be effective at preventing IFIs in people with blood-related conditions, as well as being a safe medication.

What do the results of the study mean?

Isavuconazole can prevent IFIs in people who have a higher chance of getting IFIs. Guidelines should consider that patients need new antifungals to prevent IFIs, and more research needs to be done to see which medicines work best, and which have fewer side effects.

Clinical Trial Registration: Please note that 7 studies included in this review were planned studies (1 prospective, 6 retrospective), 2 were real- world studies, 1 of which was registered as a clinical trial NCT03019939 (ClinicalTrials.gov)

This is an abstract of the Plain Language Summary of Publication article.

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Keywords::

• antifungals
• azole
• blood-related conditions
• fluconazole
• fungal infections
• isavuconazole
• prevention
• prophylaxis
• voriconazole

This article is related to:

Effectiveness and safety of isavuconazole prophylaxis for invasive fungal infections in the haematologic setting

Acknowledgments

Source Health Economics extracted the data for the systematic literature review and medical writing support, under the guidance of the authors, was provided by Macarena Ramos Gonzalez, PhD, CMC Connect, a division of IPG Health Medical Communications, both of which were funded by Pfizer Inc, New York, NY, USA in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP 2022) guidelines (Ann Intern Med. 2022;175(9):1298–1304).

Financial & competing interests disclosure

YP and JH report no conflicts of interest. CB is an employee of Pfizer Pharma GmbH. MI and JAA are employees of Pfizer Inc. TM and NW are employees of Source Health Economics. OP has previously received honoraria from Pfizer Inc; however, OP did not receive an honorarium for his work on the current manuscript. OP has received honoraria or travel support from Astellas, Gilead, Jazz, MSD, Neovii Biotech, Novartis, and Therakos. He has received research support from Gilead, Incyte, Jazz, Neovii Biotech, and Takeda. He is a member of advisory boards for Gilead, Jazz, MSD, Omeros, Priothera, Shionogi, and SOBI.

Additional information

Funding

YP and JH report no conflicts of interest. CB is an employee of Pfizer Pharma GmbH. MI and JAA are employees of Pfizer Inc. TM and NW are employees of Source Health Economics. OP has previously received honoraria from Pfizer Inc; however, OP did not receive an honorarium for his work on the current manuscript. OP has received honoraria or travel support from Astellas, Gilead, Jazz, MSD, Neovii Biotech, Novartis, and Therakos. He has received research support from Gilead, Incyte, Jazz, Neovii Biotech, and Takeda. He is a member of advisory boards for Gilead, Jazz, MSD, Omeros, Priothera, Shionogi, and SOBI.