Hey all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. I'm your host, Eric Christensen.

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All right. So the drug of the day today is val acyclevere.

Brand name of this medication is valtrex.

I have covered acyclever in the past, which definitely has some similarities,

but there are some differences here as well.

First, I wanted to mention vali syclovirate.

It is, in effect, a pro-drug where the component itself is actually converted pretty quickly by the body into a cyclovir,

which has antiviral type activity.

The most common indications I see this medication used for varicella zoster infections, herpes, simplex viruses, cold sores, as well as

genital herpes, both those. It will have some activity there. It has been shown in studies to have

some benefits there.

I have seen it used longer term as well to prevent, not just to treat as short-term therapy,

but to prevent or suppress herpes infections in the longer term as well.

Most commonly, I would say, that's going to be done in patients that don't have a great

immune system.

So, you know, maybe patients with HIV or something along those lines.

Mechanistically, so if we think about valicyclivir getting converted to acyclavir,

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