The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7487 p110
2 February 2008

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Novel sarcoma drug launched

Patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma whose standard therapy has failed could be eligible to receive a new orphan drug — trabectedin (Yondelis) — now available from biopharmaceutical company PharmaMar.

The tetrahydro-isoquinoline anti-cancer agent was originally extracted from the marine tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata, a colony forming sea squirt. Trabectedin is now made synthetically.

Administered as a 24-hour intravenous infusion, trabectedin is indicated for the treatment of patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma, after failure of anthracyclines and ifosfamide, or who are unsuited to receive those agents. Efficacy data are based mainly on liposarcoma and leiomyosarcoma patients.

The product has been licensed in Europe under “exceptional circumstances” provisions because of the rarity of the disease. Further details will appear on next week’s Notice-board.