• Ajay K Singh, Kevin Carroll, Vlado Perkovic, Scott Solomon, Vivekanand Jha, Kirsten L Johansen, Renato D Lopes, Iain C Macdougall, Gregorio T Obrador, Sushrut S Waikar, Christoph Wanner, David C Wheeler, Andrzej Więcek, Allison Blackorby, Borut Cizman, Alexander R Cobitz, Rich Davies, Jo Dole, Lata Kler, Amy M Meadowcroft, Xinyi Zhu, McMurrayJohn J VJJV0000-0002-6317-3975From Brigham and Women's Hospital (A.K.S., S.S.), Harvard Medical School (A.K.S., S.S.), Boston University School of Medicine (S.S.W.), and Boston Medical Center (S.S.W.) - all in Boston; KJC Statistics, Cheadle (K.C., and ASCEND-D Study Group.
• From Brigham and Women's Hospital (A.K.S., S.S.), Harvard Medical School (A.K.S., S.S.), Boston University School of Medicine (S.S.W.), and Boston Medical Center (S.S.W.) - all in Boston; KJC Statistics, Cheadle (K.C.), School of Public Health, Imperial College London (V.J.), King's College Hospital (I.C.M.), and the Department of Renal Medicine, University College London (D.C.W.), London, GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford (L.K. X.Z.), and the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow (J.J.V.M.) - all in the United Kingdom; University of New South Wales, Sydney (V.P.); George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi (V.J.) and Prasanna School of Public Health (V.J.), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal (V.J.) - both in India; Hennepin Healthcare, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (K.L.J.); Duke University Medical Center, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC (R.D.L.); Universidad Panamericana School of Medicine, Mexico City (G.T.O); University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany (C.W.); Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland (A.W.); and GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA (A.B., B.C., A.R.C., R.D., J.D., A.M.M.).
• N. Engl. J. Med. 2021 Dec 16; 385 (25): 232523352325-2335.

BackgroundAmong patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), the use of recombinant human erythropoietin and its derivatives for the treatment of anemia has been linked to a possibly increased risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and other adverse events. Several trials have suggested that hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors (PHIs) are as effective as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in increasing hemoglobin levels.MethodsIn this randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial, we assigned patients with CKD who were undergoing dialysis and who had a hemoglobin level of 8.0 to 11.5 g per deciliter to receive an oral HIF-PHI (daprodustat) or an injectable ESA (epoetin alfa if they were receiving hemodialysis or darbepoetin alfa if they were receiving peritoneal dialysis). The two primary outcomes were the mean change in the hemoglobin level from baseline to weeks 28 through 52 (noninferiority margin, -0.75 g per deciliter) and the first occurrence of a major adverse cardiovascular event (a composite of death from any cause, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke), with a noninferiority margin of 1.25.ResultsA total of 2964 patients underwent randomization. The mean (±SD) baseline hemoglobin level was 10.4±1.0 g per deciliter overall. The mean (±SE) change in the hemoglobin level from baseline to weeks 28 through 52 was 0.28±0.02 g per deciliter in the daprodustat group and 0.10±0.02 g per deciliter in the ESA group (difference, 0.18 g per deciliter; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12 to 0.24), which met the prespecified noninferiority margin of -0.75 g per deciliter. During a median follow-up of 2.5 years, a major adverse cardiovascular event occurred in 374 of 1487 patients (25.2%) in the daprodustat group and in 394 of 1477 (26.7%) in the ESA group (hazard ratio, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.81 to 1.07), which also met the prespecified noninferiority margin for daprodustat. The percentages of patients with other adverse events were similar in the two groups.ConclusionsAmong patients with CKD undergoing dialysis, daprodustat was noninferior to ESAs regarding the change in the hemoglobin level from baseline and cardiovascular outcomes. (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline; ASCEND-D ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02879305.).Copyright © 2021 Massachusetts Medical Society.

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