“Inactive” ingredients in oral medications

Daniel Reker; Steven M. Blum; Christoph Steiger; Kevin E. Anger; Jamie M. Sommer; John Fanikos; Giovanni Traverso

doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aau6753

PerspectivePharmacology

“Inactive” ingredients in oral medications

Daniel Reker ¹,²,³,*,
Steven M. Blum ¹,⁴,⁵,*,
Christoph Steiger ¹,²,³,
Kevin E. Anger⁴,
Jamie M. Sommer⁶,
John Fanikos⁶ and
Giovanni Traverso ¹,²,³,⁴,⁷,†

¹Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
²Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁴Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁵Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁶Investigational Drug Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁷Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

↵†Corresponding author. Email: ctraverso{at}bwh.harvard.edu, cgt20{at}mit.edu

↵* These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Science Translational Medicine 13 Mar 2019:
Vol. 11, Issue 483, eaau6753
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau6753

Daniel Reker

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Steven M. Blum

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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Christoph Steiger

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Kevin E. Anger

Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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Jamie M. Sommer

Investigational Drug Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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John Fanikos

Investigational Drug Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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Giovanni Traverso

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

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For correspondence: ctraverso@bwh.harvard.edu cgt20@mit.edu

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Abstract

Oral forms of medications contain “inactive” ingredients to enhance their physical properties. Using data analytics, we characterized the abundance and complexity of inactive ingredients in approved medications. A majority of medications contain ingredients that could cause adverse reactions, underscoring the need to maximize the tolerability and safety of medications and their inactive ingredients.

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“Inactive” ingredients in oral medications

Abstract

Science Translational Medicine

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