An Overview on New Anticancer Drugs Approved by Food and Drug Administration: Impending Economic and Environmental Challenges

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Department of Chemistry, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 415683111, Iran

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Rasht Branch, Rasht, Iran

3 Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, 45137–66731 Iran

4 Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Palacký University in Olomouc, ˇSlechtitelů, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Abstract

One of the leading causes of death worldwide these days is cancer, and new anticancer drugs have been developed to treat it with all the vigor of advancement of science and technology. Unfortunately, these drugs are very expensive and besides they cause great economic hardship for cancer patients, and society as a whole. On the other hand, the deployment of hazardous chemicals, and especially the common commercial solvents in the production of anti-cancer drugs, causes environmental pollution thus contributing to the drug purification costs. Herein, recent FDA-approved anticancer drugs in 2020-2021, their mechanism of action, financial challenges, and associated environmental hazards are deliberated, with possible solutions that may reduce not only the costs of the drugs but also the environmental pollution involved in synthesis of anticancer drugs via greener pathways by appropriate substitution

Graphical Abstract

An Overview on New Anticancer Drugs Approved by Food and Drug Administration: Impending Economic and Environmental Challenges

Keywords