[Ansatipine: only preventive treatment available for opportunistic MAI infections in AIDS. From an interview with Dr....

Ansatipine, the international name of which is rifabutine, is a new specialty that was licensed in February 1993 and marketed in France in June 1993. It is an antibiotic of the rifamycin family, the result of research by Farmitalia Carlo Erba and is now presented by the Laboratoire Pharmacia. Today, rifabutine is the only molecule in the world that has been shown to be efficacious in preventative treatment for infections by the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and to be officially recognised as such. Rifabutine (Ansatipine) was developed for prophylaxis of infections by MAC, because of its bacteriological activity on mycobacteria and especially on the Mycobacterium avium complex, the small number of the MAC which are naturally resistant, its high degree of tissue and intracellular penetration and its long half-life that allows a single daily dose. Clinical tests on more than 1,000 patients have shown the benefit of Ansatipine in the prophylactic treatment of MAC infections: reduction by half on the frequency of surveillance, prolongation of the delay in appearance, significant improvement in general condition and quality of life of the patients. Ansatipine is now dispensed to town pharmacies, which can only ease the daily lives of patients and reinforce the co-operation between hospital teams and general practitioners who specialize in the care of AIDS.