The Historical Review of Paclitaxel Formulation Development

Abstract

Paclitaxel is a chemotherapy drug that is widely used as a first-line drug and in cases of recurrence cancer. It extracted from the bark of the Pacific Yew. In the production process, the problem is the hydrophobic properties, therefore; it could not be prepared as an injection. Cremophor EL must be added as a solvent to improve solubility that caused hypersensitivity reactions (HSRs). NAB-paclitaxel is a drug loaded nanoparticles which can improve the solubility of paclitaxel and then bound with human albumin to prevent aggregation. According to several studies, they concluded that nab-paclitaxel had better efficacy compared to standard paclitaxel and could reduce the incidence of HSRs but some adverse drug reactions might increase such as thrombocytopenia and anemia. Recently, new drug formula has been developed in 2015 as a nanoparticle drug delivery like NAB-paclitaxel but it combined with the new technology called XR-17^®, a mixture of two iso-forms of N-retinoyl-l-cysteic acid methyl ester sodium salt. The result manifested that micellar paclitaxel was not inferior to standard paclitaxel and NAB-paclitaxel in term of efficacy and cause of HSRs. Nevertheless, it should be focusing on other adverse drug reactions in post-marketing.