Anemia drugs - emerging information and an FDA Alert!

Due to the results of studies recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (as reported in the New York Times), the National Kidney Foundation will be convening a panel of experts to review whether or not current anemia treatment guidelines for kidney dialysis patients need to be updated. The studies published in the NEJM indicated that aggressive treatment of anemia in kidney patients resulted in more deaths than expected. From the NYT's article:

"The foundation’s panel will probably meet in January or early February and could release new treatment recommendations for public review a few weeks later, the foundation said.

The anemia panel consists of 15 nephrologists who meet under the auspices of the foundation, a private nonprofit group based in New York that provides financing for kidney researchers. The panel is one of several panels sponsored by the foundation that make recommendations about how to improve treatment for kidney patients.

But some scientists complain that Amgen has until now had too much influence on the creation of the foundation’s guidelines. The most recent version of the anemia guidelines, released earlier this year, encourages more aggressive treatment than the Food and Drug Administration recommends."

The FDA has, in fact, issued an alert on this topic. CME Providers who are in the process of planning CME activities on this topic need to read this alert!