A new study found that Roxadustat is very effective in improving anemia with no significant adverse events in patients with chronic kidney disease. The study results were published in the journal Biomed Research International.
Renal anemia is one of the common complications of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Most of the patients on long-term dialysis have this. Roxadustat, a newly listed oral hypoxia-inducible factor-proline enhancing enzyme inhibitor (HIF-PHI) has been prescribed in some countries for the management of renal anemia. Studies in the past have shown the efficacy of roxadustat in the treatment of renal anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). As there are various conclusions on its safety, a meta-analysis has been conducted to explore the efficacy and safety of roxadustat in the treatment of renal anemia, including the adverse events involved in each study.

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Following PRISMA guidelines, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Clinical Trials were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assess the efficacy and safety of roxadustat treatment for anemia in CKD patients. The quality of included literature was evaluated using the Cochrane Literature Quality Evaluation Scale. Fixed-effects model or random-effects model was used for data processing based on heterogeneity.
Results:
A total of 842 articles were retrieved, and 16 trials in the 15 articles were finally included.
Roxadustat treatment was found to significantly increase the Hb levels.
Iron, total iron-binding capacity, ferritin, transferrin saturation, and LDL-cholesterol showed statistical significance in the dialysis-dependent (DD) study.
Hepcidin, transferrin, total iron-binding capacity, total cholesterol, ferritin, transferrin saturation, and LDL-cholesterol showed statistical significance in not dialysis-dependent (NDD) study.
Both in dialysis-dependent and not dialysis-dependent patients, roxadustat treatment did not increase the risk of total adverse events in terms of safety.
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Thus, without any significant difference in the total adverse events, Roxadustat has effectively improved anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Further reading: Juanjuan Lei, Han Li, Shixiang Wang, "Efficacy and Safety of Roxadustat in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: An Updated Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials including 6,518 Patients", BioMed Research International, vol. 2022, Article ID 2413176, 12 pages, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/2413176