From the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
"The New England Journal of Medicine last week published a Johnson & Johnson-funded clinical trial showing that patients with failing kidneys who were given high doses of Amgen's anti-anemia drug Epogen suffered 34 percent more heart attacks and strokes than patients given lower doses nearer to the FDA-approved standard. A comment that appeared in the Lancet online pointed out that the higher dose achieved in the study was within guidelines recently issued by the National Kidney Foundation, which received 57 percent of its $19.7 million budget in 2005 from corporate and organizational partners, including $4.1 million from Amgen and $3.6 million from J&J. Amgen and J&J compete with variants of Epogen sold as Aranesp and Procrit, respectively, in the oncology market. The Food and Drug Administration late last week warned physicians not to exceed agency-approved prescribing levels for Epogen, Aranesp and Procrit. "
Posted by schwitz at November 22, 2006 07:18 AM | TrackBack