FDA Releases Warning About Common Anemia Drugs

Doctors were warned Friday that popular drugs for anemia can be dangerous and even deadly for some of their patients. The FDA reported that those who have cancer and kidney disease are more likely to die or have serious health problems as a result of taking the drugs to fight their anemia.

Anemia is a condition resulting from low blood cells and is often a side effect for those who have cancer, have gone thorough chemotherapy as well as those who are on dialysis or have any kidney problems. Many of these patients end up taking medication to synthetically produce red blood cells. Common prescriptions for this include brands such as Procrit, Epogen and Aranesp.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are warning Doctors that these drugs can have a negative impact for those who take it. Dangers include increased risk of blood clots, heart attacks and strokes for those who have kidney failure, according to recent studies.

Also those who have or had cancer of the head or neck showed a higher rate of tumor growth if they took large amounts of the above mentioned anemia medications. And those who suffered from cancer who took the average or recommended amount of the drugs had an increased chance of dying.

Other reports indicate that patients who had orthopedic surgery and then were prescribed medication for anemia had a higher rate of blood clots as a result.

Those who are diagnosed with Anemia should talk to their doctor about risks and benefits of these drugs. The FDA added the warning to labels stating that Doctors should frequently monitor their patients' levels of red blood cells before and while they are prescribed medications for anemia. The lowest dose amount possible is encouraged to decrease the chance of harm.

Manufacturers of the drugs are Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson and have reportedly said that they will comply with the new serious warnings from the FDA. The highly profitable pharmaceutical companies made a combined total of over $10 billion last year alone.

The results of this study has also promoted further investigation into common drug reactions, and specifically those often given to patients who have or have had cancer. Also marketing from drug companies has been criticized as many claim something along the lines of "live a better life" or "feel like yourself again" as selling points to popular medications when in reality these drugs may be harmful and cause the patient to feel worse.

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