Some HIV drugs may cause birth defects - study - 09/28 1999
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Two popular HIV drugs may cause birth defects and should be avoided by pregnant women until more is known about their effects, German researchers said on Tuesday.
They found the two drugs, both members of a class known as protease inhibitors, caused abnormal eye development in baby rats.
Kai Riecke and colleagues at Freie Universitat Berlin gave the two drugs, Merck's indinavir, known as Crixivan, and Abbott Laboratories' Norvir, or Ritonavir, to pregnant rats.
They had to stop the ritonavir after a week because it made the rats sick. The rats stayed on the Indinavir for the full terms of their pregnancies.
Seven of the 236 baby rats exposed to Indinavir in the womb were born missing one eye, and two of the 113 baby rats exposed to Ritonavir had a missing eye, Riecke's team reported. Fur and teeth also developed later than normal in some of them, they said.
"These findings suggest that the treatment of pregnant women with these drugs should not be encouraged," they told a meeting of infectious disease experts at the American Society of Microbiology.
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AZT, another AIDS drug
March 31, 2005--Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has issued a Dear Health Care Provider Letter highlighting important information about Sustiva and pregnancy.
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Sustiva toxicity rating changed
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