“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.

See allHide authors and affiliations

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

Daniel Reker

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Daniel Reker

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.

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Steven M. Blum

Christoph Steiger

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Christoph Steiger

Kevin E. Anger

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

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Kevin E. Anger

Jamie M. Sommer

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

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Jamie M. Sommer

John Fanikos

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

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for John Fanikos

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.

Find this author on Google Scholar
Find this author on PubMed
Search for this author on this site
ORCID record for Giovanni Traverso
For correspondence: ctraverso@bwh.harvard.educgt20@mit.edu

Article
Figures & Data
Info & Metrics
eLetters
PDF

You are currently viewing the abstract.

View Full Text

Log in to view the full text

via AAAS login

AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.

Become a AAAS member
Activate account
Add journals
Account help

Log in through your institution

More options

Purchase digital access to this article

Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.

Purchase this issue in print

Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.

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.

http://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse

This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.

View Full Text

“Inactive” ingredients in oral medications

Abstract

Science Translational Medicine

Article Tools