The Marine Pharmacology and Pharmaceuticals Pipeline in 2018

Abstract

The ocean's organisms continue to deliver a chemical biodiversity that contributes to both the global preclinical and clinical pharmaceutical pipelines. Thus, in November 2018, the clinical marine pharmaceutical pipeline consisted of seven marine‐derived drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA): for cancer, cytarabine (Cytosar‐U®, Depocyt®, FDA‐approved 1969); for Herpes Simplex Virus, vidarabine (Vira‐A®, FDA‐approved 1976); for pain, ziconotide (Prialt®, FDA‐approved 2004); for hypertriglyceridemia, omega‐3‐acid ethyl esters (Lovaza®, FDA‐approved 2004); for cancer, eribulin mesylate (Halaven®, FDA‐approved 2010), brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris®, FDA‐approved 2011), and trabectedin (Yondelis®, FDA‐approved 2015). The website www.clinicaltrials.gov was searched to determine marine‐derived pharmaceuticals that were in Phase I, Phase II and Phase III of clinical development in November 2018. Confirmation of our findings in the www.clinicaltrials.gov website was conducted by visiting the websites of all pharmaceutical companies supporting the development of compounds currently in Phase I, Phase II and Phase III of clinical development. Our clinical research determined that there were 25 marine‐derived compounds in active clinical trials in November 2018: 6 marine‐derived compounds were in Phase III, 10 compounds in Phase II, and at least 9 compounds in Phase I, many of them auristatin‐containing antibody drug conjugates or ADCs. Regular updates on the clinical marine pharmaceutical pipeline will be posted on the dedicated website: http://marinepharmacology.midwestern.edu/clinical_pipeline.html. Furthermore, it is important to note that the global preclinical marine pharmacology pipeline continues to generate considerable data on multiple pharmacological classes, as highlighted in a recent review: A. M. S. Mayer, A. D. Rodríguez, O. Taglialatela‐Scafati and N. Fusetani. Marine Pharmacology in 2012–2013: Marine Compounds with Antibacterial, Antidiabetic, Antifungal, Anti‐Inflammatory, Antiprotozoal, Antituberculosis, and Antiviral Activities; Affecting the Immune and Nervous Systems, and other Miscellaneous Mechanisms of Action. Marine Drugs 15 (9): 273, 2017. We thus conclude that in November 2018, both the marine pharmacology preclinical and clinical pharmaceutical pipelines continued to remain very active.Support or Funding InformationSupport by the College of Pharmacy, Vicki Sears, Pharmacology Department, College of Graduate Studies and Elizabeth Tallman, Information Technology Services, Midwestern University are gratefully acknowledged.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.