>It is supposedly made to address anemia in Kidney dialysis patients rather >than cancer patients. How anemia, and stimulating the production of RBC's, >in each case differs is beyond me right now.
The new stuff (Darbepoetin) is a slight modification of good old EPO. It has the same protein backbone as EPO but with modified sugars attached to it - designed to increase its "hang time" in the blood so that it doesn't have to be given so often. It seems to me that this modification would make it much easier to test for, as those skiers in Salt Lake City found out to their regret, because it is no longer identical to the natural endogenous substance. This "same as natural" characteristic, while wonderful for clinical uses, has hampered the development of effective tests that can distinguish the EPO your kidneys made from the EPO you bought at the gym. Both drugs are approved to treat dialysis anemia, and Darbepoetin is also approved for cancer treatment induced anemia, although EPO has also been used "off label" for that for a long time. >local newspaper. It stated in no uncertain terms that Amgen had fully >developed EPO "by 1983". It made no mention of when it was available as a >prescription drug This is an error by your newspaper (error in a newspaper? Shocking!). EPO could not possibly have been fully developed by 1983 nor even could it even have been available "underground" back then, because the gene from which all this recombinant EPO is made was not discovered until 1985. It's all documented in the scientific literature if you care to look. EPO did not become widely available in the US until it was approved by the FDA which was on June 1st, 1989. Between 1985 and 1989 there was only stuff available for clinical trials and whatever might have been stolen out of labs for dishonorable purposes. Kurt Bray _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
