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Elaprase

Idursulfase

An intravenous enzyme replacement therapy used to treat Hunter syndrome.

Generic name
Idursulfase
Brand name
Elaprase
Route
Intravenous
Marketed by
Shire
FDA pharmacologic class
Hydrolytic Lysosomal Glycosaminoglycan-specific Enzyme
First FDA approval
24 Jul 2006

Where Idursulfase is approved

All regulators →

Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Idursulfase was the US, on 24 Jul 2006. It is approved in 3 of the 3 regulators tracked here.

USUnited States (FDA)
24 Jul 2006
Elaprase
BLA125151 on Drugs@FDA
First original NDA/BLA approval
EUEuropean Union (EMA)
8 Jan 2007
Elaprase
EMA product page
First centralised authorisation
CACanada (Health Canada)
13 Jun 2007
Elaprase
Notice of Compliance 8842
First new-drug NOC
  • 1 EU orphan designation, most recently for treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis type II (Hunter's syndrome) (6 Jan 2021, withdrawn)

From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.

What health systems spend on Idursulfase

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ENNHS England
Not dispensed in the community in England in the last 12 months under this name
Net ingredient cost, community prescriptions
USUS Medicaid
$86.6m
2,909 prescriptions in 2025 · Elaprase
+6% on 2024
Amount Medicaid reimbursed, before rebates

From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.

How Idursulfase works

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Diseases it has been tested for in clinical trials, by furthest phase
  • Cognitive impairmentPhase 2/3

Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL1201826, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Guide to Pharmacology has no record of this medicine, so its targets rest on ChEMBL alone. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.

Patient leaflets for Idursulfase

The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.

  • IE
    Ireland: 1 product on the HPRA list
    Each product record links to the HPRA, which publishes the leaflet and SmPC.
  • EU
    European Union: Elaprase
    EMA product information: package leaflet and summary of product characteristics in every EU language.
  • UK
    United Kingdom: Search MHRA Products
    Patient information leaflets and SmPCs for UK-licensed products.
  • US
    United States: Search DailyMed
    FDA-approved labels, including patient and medication guides.

Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.

Reference identifiers for Idursulfase

ATC code
A16AB09
ChEMBL
CHEMBL1201826
DrugBank
DB01271
CAS number
50936-59-9
FDA UNII
5W8JGG2651
Wikidata
Q415801
Wikipedia
Idursulfase

Codes that identify this medicine in other databases, from Wikidata (CC0), matched by its ChEMBL ID. The ATC code is the WHO classification of what the medicine is used for.

What Elaprase is used for

ELAPRASE is indicated for patients with Hunter syndrome (Mucopolysaccharidosis II, MPS II). ELAPRASE has been shown to improve walking capacity in patients 5 years and older. In patients 16 months to 5 years of age, no data are available to demonstrate improvement in disease-related symptoms or long term clinical outcome; however, treatment with ELAPRASE has reduced spleen volume similarly to that of adults and children 5 years of age and older. The safety and efficacy of ELAPRASE have not been established in pediatric patients less than 16 months of age [see Use in Specific Populations (8.4) ]. ELAPRASE is a hydrolytic lysosomal glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-specific enzyme indicated for patients with Hunter syndrome (Mucopolysaccharidosis II, MPS II). ELAPRASE has been shown to improve walking capacity in patients 5 years and older. In patients 16 months to 5 years of age, no data are avail…

How it works

12.1 Mechanism of Action Hunter syndrome (Mucopolysaccharidosis II, MPS II) is an X-linked recessive disease caused by insufficient levels of the lysosomal enzyme iduronate-2-sulfatase. This enzyme cleaves the terminal 2- O -sulfate moieties from the glycosaminoglycans (GAG) dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate. Due to the missing or defective iduronate-2-sulfatase enzyme in patients with Hunter syndrome, GAG progressively accumulate in the lysosomes of a variety of cells, leading to cellular engorgement, organomegaly, tissue destruction, and organ system dysfunction. ELAPRASE is intended to provide exogenous enzyme for uptake into cellular lysosomes. Mannose-6-phosphate (M6P) residues on t…

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How this page is built

The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.

Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 12 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.

Please verify before you rely on this. This page is general information for life-science and pharmaceutical professionals. It is not medical advice, and it has not been reviewed by a clinician — our editorial team holds life-science qualifications, not clinical ones. It is not exhaustive and may not reflect the most recent label change. Always check the official prescribing information (US Prescribing Information or EU SmPC) and speak to your doctor or pharmacist before acting on anything here. Drugs in the same class are not automatically interchangeable, and approvals, brand names and indications differ between the US, the EU/Ireland (EMA/HPRA) and other regions. Spotted an error? Tell us — we correct promptly and log it.