Iron saccharate

CAS 8047-67-4

Iron saccharate is also called iron sucrose, but its pharmaceutical identity is more complex than one iron atom joined to one sugar. It contains polynuclear iron(III)-hydroxide associated with sucrose. This assembly helps make iron delivery a formulation problem as well as an elemental one. Review literature traces clinical use to 1949; Venofer received initial US approval in 2000. Matching total iron content does not establish that two complex preparations are physicochemically identical. The elemental iron amount and the complete medicinal product answer different questions. Current clinical use requires monitoring because hypersensitivity, hypotension and iron overload can occur. Iron saccharate shows how an essential metal becomes a delivery system through control of composition, physical organization and pharmaceutical manufacture, rather than through a simple chemical name alone.