Efficacy of darbepoetin alfa administered subcutaneously every other week in maintaining hemoglobin in Chronic Kidney Disease

According to a recent study, chronic kidney disease patients who received once-weekly (QW) recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), effectively converted to darbepoetin alfa administered subcutaneously every other week (Q2W), which was well tolerated. This study was published in the American Journal of Nephrology .

The STAAR (Simplify the Treatment of Anemia with Aranesp) was a multicenter, 52-week study that enrolled 524 subjects. The subgroup analysis of subjects who were on QW rHuEPO, were converted to 52-weeks of darbepoetin alfa therapy, administered subcutaneously. These subjects had either creatinine clearance < or = 70 ml/min or transferrin saturation > or = 20% and an estimated glomerular filtration rate < or = 60 ml/min. The primary endpoint of the study was mean Hb during evaluation.

It was found that the mean Hb +/- standard deviation was 11.2 +/- 1.27 g/dl at baseline while the least squares mean +/- SE was 11.4 +/- 0.04 during evaluation. Also, the mean +/- SD Q2W darbepoetin alfa dose was 49.7 +/- 21.9 microg and 48.9 +/- 35.5 microg at baseline and evaluation, respectively.

From the above results, it can be concluded that darbepoetin alfa was well tolerated in subjects who had chronic kidney disease, who were receiving QW rHuEPO and were effectively converted to Q2W darbepoetin alfa.