Febuxostat, a novel drug for the treatment of hyperuricemia of gout

摘要

Febuxostat is a novel, nonpurine, selective inhibitor of xanthine oxidase (NP-SIXO), recently approved in the European Union. Febuxostat shows high, long-term efficacy for the reduction of serum urate (SU) levels, showing linear pharmacokinetics at approved doses, and its pharmacokinetics are not clinically significantly influenced by the presence of mild-to-moderate renal or liver function impairment. The clinical applicability of febuxostat should have a significant impact in patients with the highest baseline SU levels, the most severe gout, previous adverse events with other urate-lowering drugs or no availability of alternative urate-lowering drugs after failure to properly control SU levels during urate-lowering therapy. Febuxostat may become an interesting choice in our use of xanthine oxidase inhibitors.