Valganciclovir 50mg/ml oral solution sugar free
Requires a prescription from a doctor or prescriber
Valganciclovir hydrochloride (Valcyte, manufactured by Roche) is an antiviral medication used to treat cytomegalovirus infections.
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Official medicine documents
Safety monitoring data
Yellow Card reports
The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Valganciclovir
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Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA
Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
EudraVigilance
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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Valganciclovir
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EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
1 branded products available
MHRA licensed products
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Valcyte 50mg/ml oral solution
This is the NHS Drug Tariff indicative price used for reimbursement purposes. It may not reflect the price paid by patients or pharmacies.
View full Drug TariffSource: NHS Drug Tariff via NHSBSA. Derived from dm+d VMPP (Virtual Medicinal Product Pack) pricing data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
WHO defined daily dose (DDD)
900 mg
Not a recommended dose. The DDD is the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults. It is a statistical measure used for research and comparison purposes only.
Source: WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology, distributed via the NHS dm+d supplementary BNF/ATC mapping files (NHSBSA). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
NICE clinical guidance(3)
Maribavir for treating refractory cytomegalovirus infection after transplant (TA860)
Letermovir for preventing cytomegalovirus disease after a stem cell transplant (TA591)
Brain tumours (primary) and brain metastases in over 16s (NG99)
Source: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Check stock at pharmacies and supply information
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Supply & safety information
Official UK regulator monitoring and safety alerts
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.
NHS UK identifiers
Browse tools
SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. BNF code shown is the factual mapping value distributed by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in the dm+d supplementary file under OGL v3.0; it is not affiliated with, nor licensed from, the publishers of the British National Formulary. ATC codes from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology (whocc.no).
Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance
Showing the 50 most relevant studies.
Reviews & meta-analyses: 12 · Randomised trials: 16 · 1999–2026
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
A. Limaye, K. Budde, A. Humar, et al.
JAMA, 2023
Al-Timimi Z, Geddes A, Lawrence R
2026
- Cytomegalovirus
- Cytomegalovirus Infections
- Stomach Ulcer
This case report and systematic review describe the complete clinical course of chronic gastric ulceration complicating acute gastrointestinal CMV disease in a 72-year-old immunocompetent woman, with demonstrable response to ganciclovir but not valganciclovir. The unusual nature of this presentation prompted a systematic review to identify similar cases, which yielded 1432 records. Following de-duplication, title/abstract screening, and full article review 54 studies reporting 59 further cases of CMV-related gastric ulceration in immunocompetent patients were included. The derived epidemiologic, clinical and treatment features of this cohort indicated that CMV is an uncommon but potentially treatable cause of both acute and chronic gastric ulceration in immunocompetent adults. Acute gastric ulcers due to CMV in immunocompetent patients have been shown to respond well to antivirals but may also improve without specific antiviral treatment. Chronic gastric ulceration (lasting > 1 month) due to CMV in immunocompetent patients is a rare but distinct disease phenotype which may complicate both acute and non-acute CMV. For patients with chronic gastric ulceration, ganciclovir may have greater efficacy than valganciclovir based on the small subset of patients with this disease phenotype. Finally, CMV may represent an under-recognised and treatable contributor to the increasing cohort of patients, particularly older patients, with Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug negative gastric ulcers, though CMV-associated gastric ulcers remain rare overall. Accordingly, diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion, with pursuit of CMV PCR and/or immunohistochemistry of gastric ulcer biopsies strongly encouraged.
Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND
Muhammad Usman, Zhihan Yuan, Hao Yu, et al.
BMC Infectious Diseases, 2026
G. Papanicolaou, Robin K Avery, Catherine Cordonnier, et al.
Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2023
W. Xin, Yang Hui, Z. Xiaodong, et al.
Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques, 2017
Philip R Selby, S. Shakib, S. Peake, et al.
Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 2021
D. Kimberlin, Inmaculada Aban, K. Peri, et al.
The Journal of pediatrics, 2024
Seun Deuk Hwang, Jin Ho Lee, Seoung Woo Lee, et al.
Transplantation proceedings, 2018
O. Witzke, M. Nitschke, M. Bartels, et al.
Transplantation, 2017
Jin Ho Lee, Heeryong Lee, Seoung Woo Lee, et al.
Transplantation proceedings, 2021
Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
4.08 hours
Mechanism
Valganciclovir is a prodrug of ganciclovir that exists as a mixture of two diastereomers.
Food interactions
1 warning
Human targets
1 target
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Absorption
60%
Half-life
4.08 hours
Protein binding
1%
Volume of distribution
0.134 L/kg
Metabolism
Elimination
Clearance
0.64 mL/min/kg
* 5.3 L/hr [Patient with creatinine clearance of 70.4 mL/min]
Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Known interactions with other medications. Always consult a healthcare professional.
Showing 50 of 824 interactions
How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination
* 5.3 L/hr [Patient with creatinine clearance of 70.4 mL/min]
Proteins that transport this drug across cell membranes
PMID:15521010 PMID:18367661 PMID:19685173 PMID:26320580 PMID:7896779 PMID:8914574 PMID:9835627
Primarily responsible for the absorption of dietary di- and tripeptides from the small intestinal lumen (By similarity). Mediates transepithelial transport of muramyl and N-formylated bacterial dipeptides contributing to recognition of pathogenic bacteria by the mucosal immune system PMID:15521010 PMID:9835627
PMID:16434549 PMID:18367661 PMID:7756356
Transports neutral and anionic dipeptides with a proton to peptide stoichiometry of 2:1 or 3:1 (By similarity). In kidney, involved in the absorption of circulating di- and tripeptides from the glomerular filtrate .
PMID:7756356
Can also transport beta-lactam antibiotics, such as the aminocephalosporin cefadroxil, and other antiviral and anticancer drugs .
PMID:16434549
Transports the dipeptide-like aminopeptidase inhibitor bestatin (By similarity). Also able to transport carnosine .
PMID:31073693
Involved in innate immunity by promoting the detection of microbial pathogens by NOD-like receptors (NLRs) (By similarity).
Mediates transport of bacterial peptidoglycans across the plasma membrane or, in macrophages, the phagosome membrane: catalyzes the transport of certain bacterial peptidoglycans, such as muramyl dipeptide (MDP), the NOD2 ligand PMID:20406817
PMID:10446133
Transports non-alpha-amino acids such as beta-alanine with low affinity, and has a higher affinity for dipolar and cationic amino acids such as leucine and lysine .
PMID:18599538
Can also transport carnitine, butirylcarnitine and propionylcarnitine coupled to the transmembrane gradients of Na(+) and Cl(-) PMID:17855766
ATC J05AB14
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
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Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Valganciclovir
Additional database identifiers
Drugs Product Database (DPD)
12759
ChemSpider
57721
GenBank Gene Database
X14112
GenBank Protein Database
59530
UniProt Accession
DPOL_HHV11
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:10920
GenAtlas
SLC15A1
GeneCards
SLC15A1
GenBank Gene Database
U13173
GenBank Protein Database
773588
Guide to Pharmacology
984
UniProt Accession
S15A1_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:10921
GenAtlas
SLC15A2
GeneCards
SLC15A2
GenBank Gene Database
S78203
GenBank Protein Database
999213
Guide to Pharmacology
985
UniProt Accession
S15A2_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:11047
GenAtlas
SLC6A14
GeneCards
SLC6A14
GenBank Gene Database
AF151978
GenBank Protein Database
5732680
Guide to Pharmacology
937
UniProt Accession
S6A14_HUMAN
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite the following publications:
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Structured knowledge from the free knowledge base
ATC classifications (Wikidata)
Linked open data from Wikidata (Q423384), a free and open knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Data is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication. WHO INN from the World Health Organization.