CMS Scales Back EPO Decision

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services yesterday released its final decision on the use of anti-anemia drugs in cancer patients. Bottom line: It will scale back use of the drugs, collectively known as EPO, somewhat. Pressure from Capitol Hill and the medical community (the agency received more than 2,600 comments, many of them organized by Amgen and J&J, which make the drugs) got the agency to withdraw some of the limitations that had been proposed last May. Recent studies have shown that overusing EPO may actually make cancers grow faster.

While a stock analyst told the New York Times that CMS "blinked," even he had to admit that the new policy would result in a “significant reduction” in use of the drugs.

The most significant changes: EPO can only be used for the anemia associated with chemotherapy, not the anemia associated with cancer itself; and the onset of therapy should only begin when red blood cell counts fall below 30 percent of blood volume. While that's above the 27 percent level initially set in May, it's still well below the level at which many doctors began infusing EPO in recent years. Both companies gave out hefty financially rewards to physicians who used more of the drugs, known as Aranesp and Procrit.