UPDATE 1-Safety data on AstraZeneca anaemia drug points to potential use in dialysis

AstraZeneca said that safety data on roxadustat underpinned the British drugmaker’s hopes for the anaemia drug to become a standard treatment for patients with kidney disease. It said pooled data from several late-stage trials showed that roxadustat did not increase the risk of potentially deadly cardiovascular complications like heart attacks and strokes when used instead of epo, which is the standard treatment for dialysis patients against lack of red blood cells from kidney disease. For a subgroup of patients that had just recently gone on dialysis the cardiovascular risk was about one third lower for patients on roxadustat compared with those on epo, it added.