NeoRecormon and Venofer show potential in anemia trial

A study presented at the European Hematology Association congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, showed that the administration of Roche's NeoRecormon (epoetin-beta), in addition to intravenous Venofer (iron sucrose), manufactured by US health care firm American Regent, significantly increased the levels of hemoglobin in cancer patients. The findings are derived from the NIFe (NeoRecormon Intravenous Iron) study that was carried out under the leadership of Michael Hedenus from the Sundsvall Hospital, Sweden, at 15 research centers across the country.

The program, which ran for 16 weeks, was an open-label, randomized assessment of the combined therapy in anemic patients with lymphoproliferative disorders who were not receiving concurrent chemotherapy. Subjects were treated with NeoRecormon 30,000 IU on a weekly basis, in addition to 100mg of Venofer per week for the first six weeks, moving to every other week for the remainder of the study. The results showed that 93% of the enrolled subjects achieved a 2g/dL increase in hemoglobin, effectively raising Hb levels to European guideline targets.

Commenting on the data, Dr Hedenus said: "we would generally expect that 50%-60% of anemic patients with cancer would respond to anemia treatment. These new results are therefore very encouraging and mean we may be able to treat more patients and alleviate the burden of anemia and fatigue."