Open-Label Extension Safety Study of PROCRIT in Patients With Anemia of Chronic Disease Due to Rheumatoid Arthritis

Centocor Ortho Biotech

Status and phase

Withdrawn

Phase 2

Conditions

Anemia

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Treatments

Drug: Epoetin alfa

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Industry

Identifiers

NCT00123149

CR002461

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long-term safety profile of epoetin alfa in patients with anemia of chronic disease due to rheumatoid arthritis

Full description

Epoetin alfa is an analogue of erythropoetin, a hormone secreted by kidneys known to stimulate red blood cell production. Although epoetin alfa has been known to be effective in treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease, information on its effectiveness and long-term safety for treatment of anemia associated with rheumatoid arthritis is limited. This 35-week safety study is an extension of a 20-week, prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center study that investigates effectiveness of epoetin alfa in patients with anemia of chronic disease due to rheumatoid arthritis. The study hypothesis is that there will be no long-term safety concerns of epoetin alfa administered once every two weeks in rheumatoid arthritis patients with anemia of chronic disease. Patients will receive epoetin alfa injections (40,000 units) under their skin once every 2 weeks for up to 31 weeks. Doses may be adjusted depending on the patients' hemoglobin level up to the maximum of 60,000 units once every 2 weeks or 40,000 units once weekly.

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 99 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patients must have signed an informed consent
Women must be postmenopausal for at least one year, surgically sterile, or practicing an effective method of birth control, or have a negative serum pregnancy test at Week 1 of the study
Women must not be breast feeding during this study period
Patients must have completed the double-blind (DB) study (PR03-33-055) without missing more than 4 study visits and have hemoglobin level of less than or equal to 12.9 g/dL at Week 20 of the DB study

Exclusion criteria

Uncontrolled hypertension
Elective surgery, including joint replacement, anticipated to require transfusion during the extension study period
Thromboembolic event during the double-blind study including acute myocardial infarction, Cerebrovascular accident and/or transient ischemic attack
Deep vein thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism
Uncontrolled psychiatric disease or other co-morbid disease that have developed or worsened since enrollment to the double-blind study
Planning to be enrolled in any other clinical trial during the course of this study