EPO’s makers may be down, but they’re not out
(UPDATED: See below.)
Erythropoietin, or EPO, and its close relatives didn’t become the world’s most popular biotech drugs — at least through last year, when they pulled in sales of almost $12 billion — for nothing. On the plus side of the ledger, the anemia treatment owed its early success to the near miraculous improvement it wrought in the health of kidney-dialysis patients, who previously required numerous blood transfusions and frequently died relatively quickly anyway. On the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Anemia drugs under assault, stem-cell trial moves forward, medical interventions and poor “quality of death,” and more
Is the bell tolling for EPO? – The news keeps going from bad to worse for the wonder drugs of biotech — the anemia treatments known as ESAs or EPO, shorthand for “erythropoiesis stimulating agents” and “erythropoietin,” respectively. Earlier today, an FDA advisory panel recommended new warnings for the drugs, which stimulate the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, as well as fresh clinical studies on their safety. Recent studies in kidney-dialysis patients linked higher doses… Continue Reading
Health and science roundup: Amgen, generic biologics, the origins of white people and more
Amgen’s anemia rollercoaster — Biotechnology titan Amgen may have dodged a bullet when a study released Thursday showed that its anemia drug Aranesp didn’t shorten the lives of patients, after several other studies had suggested the opposite. But its anemia franchise isn’t out of the woods yet. A Wednesday report in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that for-profit dialysis clinics prescribe far higher doses of anemia drugs to their patients than do their non-profit… Continue Reading
Health and science roundup: Amgen, generic biologics, the origins of white people and more
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Amgen’s anemia rollercoaster — Biotechnology titan Amgen may have dodged a bullet when a study released Thursday showed that its anemia drug Aranesp didn’t shorten the lives of patients, after several other studies had suggested the opposite. But its anemia franchise isn’t out of the… Continue Reading