Eribulin Injection
Eribulin is an intravenous chemotherapy used to treat metastatic breast cancer and unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma in patients who have already received prior treatment.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 17 clinical label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
📖 Eribulin Injection: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Eribulin Injection — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Eribulin mesylate injection is a chemotherapy approved for two specific advanced cancers in patients who have already received prior treatment.
- Metastatic breast cancer: Halaven (eribulin mesylate injection) is approved for patients who have received at least two prior chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease, including both an anthracycline and a taxane (either for early-stage or metastatic cancer).
- Unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma: Halaven (eribulin mesylate injection) is approved for patients who have received a prior anthracycline-containing regimen and whose cancer cannot be surgically removed or has spread.
⚙️How it works▾
Eribulin works by interfering with microtubules — the internal scaffolding that cancer cells use to divide. It blocks the growth phase of these structures, locking them into a state where the cell can't complete division (called a G2/M cell-cycle block). This leads to the cancer cell dying. In breast cancer, lab and animal studies also showed that eribulin reduced how aggressively cancer cells migrate and invade, and improved blood flow within tumors, which may reduce areas of low oxygen that can make cancers more resistant to treatment.
💊How it's taken▾
Eribulin mesylate injection (Halaven) is given intravenously — directly into a vein — by a trained healthcare provider in a clinic or infusion center. It is not self-administered at home.
- It is given on Day 1 and Day 8 of a 21-day treatment cycle, as a short infusion lasting only a few minutes each time.
- Your dose is individualized and may be adjusted or delayed based on your blood counts, liver function, kidney function, or side effects — follow your oncology team's schedule exactly.
- If you miss or need to delay a scheduled dose, your care team will advise on the next steps based on your current health status.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
Eribulin commonly causes several side effects — some manageable, some requiring prompt medical attention.
- Low white blood cell count (neutropenia) — the most common serious reaction
- Anemia (low red blood cells)
- Fatigue and weakness (asthenia)
- Hair loss (alopecia)
- Peripheral neuropathy — numbness, tingling, or pain in hands and feet
- Nausea
- Constipation
- Fever (pyrexia)
- Abdominal pain
- Headache
Call your doctor right away if you develop a fever or signs of infection (which could mean dangerously low white blood cells), worsening numbness or weakness in your limbs, or an irregular heartbeat. These need prompt evaluation and possible dose changes.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Neutropenia (low white blood cells): Severe drops in white blood cells occurred in a significant portion of patients and can lead to life-threatening infections, including fatal sepsis. Blood counts are checked before every dose. Patients with liver enzyme or bilirubin elevations face a higher risk. Doses are delayed or reduced if counts fall too low.
- Peripheral neuropathy: Nerve damage causing numbness, tingling, or pain — especially in the hands and feet — is common and was the leading reason patients stopped treatment. It can last more than a year and may not fully resolve. Report any new or worsening symptoms to your care team immediately.
- QT prolongation (heart rhythm change): Eribulin can affect the heart's electrical conduction in a way that increases the risk of dangerous arrhythmias. Avoid eribulin if you have congenital long QT syndrome. Extra heart monitoring is needed if you have heart failure, a slow heart rate, low potassium or magnesium, or take other drugs that affect heart rhythm.
- Embryo-fetal toxicity: Eribulin can cause serious harm or death to an unborn baby. Effective contraception is required during treatment and for a period after the final dose for both women and men.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Eribulin has a limited interaction profile, but a few important considerations apply.
- QT-prolonging drugs (such as Class Ia and III antiarrhythmics): Taking these alongside eribulin raises the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm problem. ECG monitoring is recommended.
- Low potassium or magnesium (electrolyte imbalances): These increase the risk of QT prolongation with eribulin. Levels should be corrected before starting treatment and monitored regularly.
- CYP3A4 inhibitors and inducers (such as ketoconazole or rifampin): Clinical studies showed these drugs did not meaningfully change eribulin blood levels, so significant interactions via this pathway are not expected.
- Eribulin itself is unlikely to alter the blood levels of other drugs that rely on common liver enzymes (CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4).
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Liver problems: A dose reduction is recommended for mild or moderate liver impairment. Eribulin has not been studied in severe liver impairment, so its safety in that group is unknown.
- Kidney problems: A lower starting dose is recommended for moderate or severe kidney impairment.
- Congenital long QT syndrome: Eribulin should be avoided entirely in patients with this inherited heart condition.
- Heart conditions or slow heart rate: Extra ECG (heart rhythm) monitoring is needed if you have congestive heart failure or bradyarrhythmias.
- Pregnancy: Eribulin can cause serious harm to an unborn baby. Women who could become pregnant must use effective contraception during treatment and for at least 2 weeks after the last dose.
- Breastfeeding: Do not breastfeed during treatment or for 2 weeks after the final dose due to potential serious risk to the infant.
- Men and fertility: Men with female partners who could become pregnant should use effective contraception during treatment and for 3.5 months after the last dose. Animal studies suggest eribulin may damage male reproductive tissues and impair fertility.
- Children: Safety and effectiveness have not been established in pediatric patients.
- Baseline blood counts: Eribulin was not studied in patients with very low white blood cell counts at the start of treatment — this will be assessed before therapy begins.
🚑If you take too much▾
An overdose of eribulin at roughly four times the recommended dose has been reported, resulting in severely low white blood cells lasting about one week and a serious allergic-type reaction lasting one day. There is no known antidote for eribulin overdose. If an overdose is suspected, contact your healthcare team or emergency services immediately.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Eribulin can affect the heart's electrical system — specifically, it can prolong the QTc interval (a measurement of how long it takes the heart to reset between beats). This effect was observed on Day 8 of the dosing cycle but not on Day 1, and appeared to be independent of how much eribulin was in the blood at that time. Patients with pre-existing heart rhythm issues, low electrolytes, or who take other QT-prolonging drugs need extra monitoring during treatment.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Eribulin follows predictable (linear) pharmacokinetics — meaning blood levels rise proportionally with the dose. It has a half-life of about 40 hours, so it takes roughly a couple of days for the body to clear half of a given dose. Eribulin is moderately bound to proteins in the blood (about 49–65%). It does not build up in the body with weekly dosing, and exposure after repeated doses is similar to after a single dose. Eribulin is primarily circulated in its unchanged form, and is cleared through the liver and kidneys — which is why dose adjustments are needed in patients with liver or kidney impairment.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20ºC to 25°C (68º to 77°F); excursions permitted to 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F) . Do not freeze or refrigerate. Store the vials in their original cartons.
📄 Written from Eribulin Injection’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Eribulin Injection
13 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Eribulin Injection in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 6
- Moderate · 7
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Eribulin Injection — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is eribulin used for — and is it right for my type of cancer? ▾
How is eribulin given, and will I have to go to a clinic every day? ▾
What side effects should I actually expect, and which ones should make me call my doctor? ▾
I've heard this can cause nerve damage — what does that look like and is it permanent? ▾
Can I get pregnant or father a child while on eribulin? ▾
I have kidney and liver problems — can I still get eribulin? ▾
Is Eribulin Injection available over the counter? ▾
When was Eribulin Injection first available? ▾
Who makes Eribulin Injection? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Eribulin Injection’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Eribulin Injection comes
Eribulin Injection is available in 1 form. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Injection
How this form is used
- Halaven is used intravenously to treat metastatic breast cancer in patients who have received at least two prior chemotherapy regimens, including an anthracycline and a taxane
- Halaven is used intravenously to treat unresectable or metastatic liposarcoma in patients who have received a prior anthracycline-containing regimen
- Halaven is given as a short intravenous infusion (over 2 to 5 minutes) on Day 1 and Day 8 of a 21-day cycle by a healthcare professional
- Halaven should not be mixed with other drugs or administered with dextrose-containing (sugar-containing) IV solutions
- Halaven doses may be reduced or delayed based on blood counts, kidney function, liver function, or side effects — do not adjust on your own
- Patients with liver or kidney impairment may receive a lower Halaven dose as determined by their prescriber
📊 Eribulin Injection across the U.S. market
How Eribulin Injection appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Eribulin Injection is used
A general measure of how commonly Eribulin Injection is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Eribulin Injection is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Eribulin Injection prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Eribulin Injection ranks #1,245 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 22% of them.
Utilization by Eribulin Injection product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
2 ML eribulin mesylate 0.5 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 3 of 17 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1045456
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Eribulin Injection, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 3 of 17 listed Eribulin Injection NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Eribulin Injection products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Eribulin Injection — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Injection | ||||
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Apotex Corp. × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Baxter Healthcare Company | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | BluePoint Laboratories | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | BSP Pharmaceuticals SpA × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 1 mg/2 mL | Intravenous | BSP Pharmaceuticals SpA | NDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 1 g/g | — | Chongqing Sintaho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Dr. Reddys Laboratories Inc | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Eisai Inc. × 3 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Gland Pharma Limited × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., Usa | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hikma Pharmaceuticals Usa Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Kindos Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Long Grove Pharmaceuticals, LLC | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Northstar Rx LLC | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Sandoz Inc | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 0.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | XGen Pharmaceuticals DJB, Inc. | ANDA | View NDC → |
Showing 25 of 25 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 25 Eribulin Injection NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Eribulin Injection — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Eribulin Injection in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Eribulin Injection went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 1045453 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Injection RxCUI 1736560In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 2 ML eribulin mesylate 0.5 MG/MLRxCUI 1045456
Look up RxCUI 1045453 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Eribulin Injection is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
RxNorm drug class
Eribulin Injection belongs to the Microtubule Inhibitor class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 17 FDA-filed SPL label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Eisai Inc. is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.