The MDS Beacon™

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved the drug Ferriprox for the treatment of iron overload in patients with thalassemia who have had an insufficient response to at least one other iron overload therapy.

Thalassemia is a genetic condition that causes anemia.

The FDA approval of Ferriprox (deferiprone), which will be marketed by the Canadian company ApoPharma, is in line with the recommendation the agency received from its Oncology Drug Advisory Committee, which met last month to review the drug (see related Beacon news).

At…

Researchers from the Czech Republic recently found that Exjade is an effective and safe treatment for the removal of excess iron in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients. Additionally, their analyses indicate that Exjade may be more effective than Ferriprox in lower-risk patients who have high iron levels in the blood.

Dr. Jaroslav Cermak, lead author of the study, presented the results at the 2011 European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress in London.

Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) may receive red blood cell transfusions to increase low red blood cell levels. Excess iron…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on September 25 that it is examining the safety of Exjade (deferasirox) when prescribed to myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients.  An initial FDA data analysis shows that MDS patients taking Exjade have a greater risk of serious side effects than patients without MDS.  The FDA announced it needs to further analyze the specifics of  the Exjade side effects, however, before coming to a final conclusion about the drug’s safety for MDS patients. 

Exjade is an iron chelating agent, a type of drug used to bind free…

What is excess iron?

Iron is an essential element to all living organisms, as it is an important aspect of health and disease. Iron is essential to red blood cells since they house most of the body’s iron content. Iron is normally bound by different proteins which prevent it from reacting destructively with other cells in the body. However, excess iron can overload these proteins, leading to free iron circulating and accumulating in the body due to the lack of an active mechanism to excrete iron. Iron deposits, especially in…