CRC/EORTC/NCI Joint Formulation Working Party: experiences in the formulation of investigational cytotoxic drugs

The pharmaceutical formulation of a new anti-tumour agent has often been perceived as the bottleneck in anti-cancer drug development. In order to increase the speed of this essential development step, the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) agreed in 1987 to form the Joint Formulation Working Party (JFWP). The main goal of the JFWP is to facilitate the rapid progress of a new drug through pharmaceutical developmental to preclinical toxicology and subsequently to phase I clinical trial. Under the auspices of the JFWP around 50 new agents have been developed or are currently in development. In this report we present our formulation experiences since the establishment of the JFWP with a selected number of agents: aphidicolin glycinate, bryostatin 1, carmethizole, carzelesin, combretastatin A4, dabis maleate, disulphonated aluminium phthalocyanine, E.O.9, 4-hydroxyanisole, pancratistatin, rhizoxin, Springer pro-drug, SRI 62-834, temozolomide, trimelamol and V489. The approaches used and problems presented may be of general interest to scientists in related fields and those considering submitting agents for development.