An Overview on New Anticancer Drugs Approved by Food and Drug Administration: Impending Economic and Environmental Challenges

One of the leading causes of death worldwide these days is cancer, and new anticancer drugs have been developed to treat it with all the vigor of advancement of science and technology. Unfortunately, these drugs are very expensive and besides they cause great economic hardship for cancer patients, and society as a whole. On the other hand, the deployment of hazardous chemicals, and especially the common commercial solvents in the production of anti-cancer drugs, causes environmental pollution thus contributing to the drug purification costs. Herein, recent FDA-approved anticancer drugs in 2020-2021, their mechanism of action, financial challenges, and associated environmental hazards are deliberated, with possible solutions that may reduce not only the costs of the drugs but also the environmental pollution involved in synthesis of anticancer drugs via greener pathways by appropriate substitution