Neonatal Intensive Care Drug Manual

In symptomatic newborns with CMV, the mean elimination half-life of ganciclovir was 2.4 hours.⁴ A target AUC₁₂ (area under the concentration-time curve over a 12-h period) of 27 mg x h/L has been defined.⁵ The clearance of intravenous ganciclovir nearly doubled and the AUC₁₂ was reduced by almost one-half during the first 6 weeks of life.⁵ Based on these data, it appears ganciclovir 6 mg/kg every 12 hours may be insufficient to achieve the pharmacokinetic target despite evidence for clinical and virological efficacy.⁵