Blood Product OKd for AIDS Patients: The...
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Blood Product OKd for AIDS Patients: The Food and Drug Administration approved a product that boosts blood production for use in treating severe anemia that weakens many AIDS patients taking the drug AZT. The product, a man-made form of a natural hormone called erythropoietin, or EPO, stimulates production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. The manufacturer, Amgen Inc. of Thousand Oaks, will market it as Epogen in an agreement with Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. of Raritan, N.J., which sponsored tests in AIDS patients and will sell the product under the trade name Procrit.
