Infectious Disease Compendium

Letermovir

 

Dosing

480 mg per day.

240 mg per day in patients taking cyclosporine.

Hemodialysis:

Peritoneal dialysis:

Important side effects

Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, edema of arms and legs, cough, headache, fatigue, and abdominal pain.

Important drug interactions

Do not take with pimozide or ergot alkaloids and if taken with cyclosporine, do not take pitavastatin or simvastatin.

Rants and Screeds

Pearls

Treatment of choice

Use for

CMV prophylaxis in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients (PubMed).

Don't use for

Class

CMV multiplication involves the cleaving of concatemeric genomic viral DNA and the packaging each genome into virus capsids, which is mediated by the CMV–terminase complex: UL51, UL56, and UL89. But you knew that. Letermovir inhibits CMV replication by binding to components of the terminase complex.

Last update 11/28/19