Johnson & Johnson says it's giving up its quest to expand the uses for its anemia drug Procrit, after a new clinical trial failed. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine today, the study didn't prove a decrease in red-blood-cell transfusions among critically ill patients taking Procrit.
The company had wanted to expand indications for Procrit to include all intensive-care patients with anemia, regardless of diagnosis. Currently, the drug is approved for anemic patients preparing for surgery or chemotherapy, and for those who also have HIV or kidney failure.
- read the the Wall Street Journal article on Procrit
- see the report from Forbes
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