Pegfilgrastim

Pregnancy
categoryRoutes of
administrationSubcutaneousDrug classHematopoietic agents, colony-stimulating factors, immunostimulantsATC codeLegal statusLegal status Pharmacokinetic dataElimination half-life15–80 hrsIdentifiersCAS NumberIUPHAR/BPSDrugBankChemSpiderUNIIKEGGChEMBLECHA InfoCard100.169.155 Chemical and physical dataFormulaC₈₄₅H₁₃₄₃N₂₂₃O₂₄₃S₉Molar mass18802.90 g·mol^−1 NY (what is this?)  (verify)

Pegfilgrastim, sold under the brand name Neulasta among others, is a PEGylated form of the recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) analog filgrastim.^[16] It serves to stimulate the production of white blood cells (neutrophils).^[16][18] Pegfilgrastim was developed by Amgen.^[19]

Pegfilgrastim treatment can be used to stimulate bone marrow to produce more neutrophils to fight infection in patients undergoing chemotherapy.^[20]

Pegfilgrastim has a human half-life of 15 to 80 hours, much longer than the parent filgrastim (3–4 hours).^[21][20]

Pegfilgrastim was approved for medical use in the United States in January 2002, in the European Union in August 2002, and in Australia in September 2002.^{[19][17][22][23][24]} It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.^[25]

Medical uses

Pegfilgrastim is indicated to decrease the incidence of infection, as manifested by febrile neutropenia, in people with non-myeloid malignancies receiving myelosuppressive anti-cancer drugs associated with a clinically significant incidence of febrile neutropenia; and to increase survival in people acutely exposed to myelosuppressive doses of radiation (hematopoietic subsyndrome of acute radiation syndrome).^[16][26][27]

See also

• Lipegfilgrastim (Lonquex) – another pegylated filgrastim biosimilar with even longer half-life

References