Protein-bound paclitaxel is an injectable formulation of paclitaxel, a mitotic inhibitor drug used in the treatment of breast cancer. In this formulation, paclitaxel is bonded to albumin as a delivery vehicle. It is sold in the United States under the trade name Abraxane by Abraxis BioScience.
This treatment was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2005 and the European Medicines Agency in January 2008 for breast cancer cases where cancer did not respond to other chemotherapy or has relapsed. In October 2012 the FDA widened the approved use of paclitaxel to include treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of lung cancer.
Abraxane is registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, for the treatment of metastatic carcinoma of the breast after failure of anthracycline therapy. Abraxane is also included on the Schedule of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme] although, not unexpectedly, the manufacturer was unable to convince the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee that the drug warranted a higher price than existing comparator drugs.
Abraxane is a first in its class of drugs using nanoparticle albumin bound (nab) technology platform.
In June 2010, positive results were published from a phase III trial in first-line non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) when compared with Taxol (solvent-based paclitaxel).
Total revenue from the sales of Abraxane for 2009 were $314.5 million.
In 2010, Abraxis was acquired by Celgene, which now markets Abraxane.