Products by years since first approval

JSON

Approved products ordered by the number of years between their earliest approval record and the current year. Top 50 of 484 drugs with a value; ties are broken by name. 484 of 484 approved products carry a dated approval record (100%).

#	Treatment	Years in use	First approval
1	Mechlorethamine (chlormethine)	77 years	US 1949
2	Radioactive iodine (I-131)	75 years	US 1951
3	Mercaptopurine	73 years	US 1953
4	Methotrexate	73 years	US 1953
5	Busulfan	72 years	US 1954
6	Prednisone	71 years	US 1955
7	Chlorambucil	69 years	US 1957
8	Dexamethasone	68 years	US 1958
9	Cyclophosphamide	67 years	US 1959
10	Thiotepa	67 years	US 1959
11	Fluorouracil (5-FU)	64 years	US 1962
12	Vincristine	63 years	US 1963
13	Dactinomycin (actinomycin D)	62 years	US 1964
14	Melphalan (including hepatic delivery system)	62 years	US 1964
15	Vinblastine	61 years	US 1965
16	Thioguanine	60 years	US 1966
17	Hydroxyurea (hydroxycarbamide)	59 years	US 1967
18	Cytarabine	57 years	US 1969
19	Procarbazine	57 years	US 1969
20	Mitotane	56 years	US 1970
21	Megestrol acetate	55 years	US 1971
22	Progestins (megestrol acetate, medroxyprogesterone, levonorgestrel IUD)	55 years	US 1971
23	Bleomycin	53 years	US 1973
24	Doxorubicin	52 years	US 1974
25	Mitomycin C	52 years	US 1974
26	Dacarbazine	51 years	US 1975
27	Carmustine	49 years	US 1977
28	Tamoxifen	49 years	US 1977
29	Bromocriptine	48 years	US 1978
30	Cisplatin	48 years	US 1978
31	Daunorubicin	47 years	US 1979
32	Isotretinoin	44 years	US 1982
33	Etoposide	43 years	US 1983
34	Leuprolide (leuprorelin) and GnRH agonists	41 years	US 1985
35	Mitoxantrone	39 years	US 1987
36	Ifosfamide	38 years	US 1988
37	Mesna	38 years	US 1988
38	Somatostatin analogues (octreotide, lanreotide)	38 years	US 1988
39	Carboplatin	37 years	US 1989
40	Epoetin alfa	37 years	US 1989
41	Flutamide	37 years	US 1989
42	Goserelin / leuprolide (ovarian function suppression)	37 years	US 1989
43	Vinorelbine	37 years	EU 1989
44	Idarubicin	36 years	US 1990
45	Filgrastim (G-CSF)	35 years	US 1991
46	Fludarabine	35 years	US 1991
47	Ondansetron	35 years	US 1991
48	Pamidronate	35 years	US 1991
49	Pentostatin	35 years	US 1991
50	Aldesleukin (high-dose IL-2)	34 years	US 1992

434 more drugs have a value below the top 50; the full list of drugs is at /drugs/.

How this is counted

Takes the smallest year across a product's approval records and subtracts it from the year of the build. Withdrawals are not subtracted: a product withdrawn in one region may still be in use in another. The context column names that first regulator and year.

Coverage. 484 of 484 approved products carry a dated approval record (100%). Rows with a value of zero are not listed. Nothing is weighted, imputed or averaged; the ordering is by the number shown, then by name.

Machine-readable copy: /rankings/drugs-longest-in-use/data.json. Registry: src/lib/rankings.ts.

Products by years since first approval

How this is counted

Other rankings