Erythropoietins (Epo agents) widely sold and prescribed as anemia-fighting drugs that can help cancer patients avoid blood transfusions may worsen the health of some cancer patients and even hasten death.

FDA announced that Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) would add strong new “black box” warnings to their anemia drugs Procrit, Epogen, and Aranesp after several recent studies showed a higher risk of death and life-threatening side effects in some patients.

F.D.A. is re-evaluating the validity of claims in the labels and in advertisements that the drugs can raise energy levels or otherwise improve a patient’s quality of life.patients.
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Tom Lamb at drugwatch.com says FDA has cancelled plans that they announced in 2005 to establish a new web site, to be called Drug Watch, that would alert doctors and patients about emerging drug safety issues. “One could think of it as the FDA’s early-warning system for serious side effects that might be linked to FDA-approved prescription drugs,” Lamb says.
This new Drug Watch web site, Lamb says, was supposed to be “a key part of the FDA’s effort to improve its performance in fulfilling its drug safety monitoring role, which was roundly criticized following the September 2004 Vioxx recall.”
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