A Pilot Trial of Herpesvirus Treatment in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

The investigators will conduct a single-center, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot study of anti-herpesvirus therapy in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Patients with mild, moderate or severe IPF with serologic evidence of current or past Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) or cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Randomization will be to pirfenidone plus placebo or pirfenidone plus valganciclovir. Thirty subjects will be enrolled and randomized to treatment with pirfenidone plus valganciclovir (20 subjects) or pirfenidone plus placebo (10 subjects) for 12 weeks. The primary outcome will be safety and tolerability will be determined by type, frequency and duration of adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) after 12 weeks of study drug treatment. All study subjects will be offered bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) at study initiation and upon completion of treatment (12 weeks). Subjects will then be followed up at routine clinic visits at 6, 9 and 12 months for data collection.