gemcitabine + cedazuridine

**Gemcitabine + cedazuridine** is an investigational oral combination of the nucleoside metabolic antagonist gemcitabine and cedazuridine, a cytidine deaminase (CDA) inhibitor. Cedazuridine inhibits CDA-mediated deamination of gemcitabine in the gastrointestinal tract and liver, boosting its oral bioavailability to approximately 90%, comparable to intravenous administration, enabling flexible dosing schedules like maintenance or metronomic therapy for solid tumors. Developed by Helix Biopharma as GEMCEDA, a first-in-class oral prodrug of gemcitabine, it leverages gemcitabine's mechanism of incorporating into DNA as difluorodeoxycytidine triphosphate (dFdCTP) to chain-terminate synthesis and inhibit ribonucleotide reductase, inducing apoptosis in rapidly dividing cancer cells.[3][4][7]

Brand names

GEMCEDA

Other names

Gemcitabine prodrug/Cedazuridine