Amgen's anemia drug Aranesp was linked to an increase in strokes in a study of kidney patients last year, prompting the company to include a warning in its prescription notes. This badly affected its sales and general use, as you can imagine. But recently the USA's Food and Drug Administration had a panel of outside advisers vote on whether or not it should continue to be used, and decided that it can be used after all. Many news sites reported on this, including Bloomberg's
It seems that while the FDA acknowledges the possibility of risks being associated with the drug, they feel it can be used in kidney patients who are not yet on dialysis, and that more work needs to be done on the possible problem. The panel which recommended this is now looking into what the recommended dose should be.
With anemia a common side effect in kidney disease sufferers, some drugs such as Aranesp are used to boost production of hemoglobin.
