STAT+: FDA approves Protagonist and Takeda’s drug for rare blood cancer

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new treatment for a rare and slow-growing cancer that causes an overproduction of red blood cells. 

The drug, called rusfertide, was developed by the biotech company Protagonist Therapeutics. It will be sold by Takeda, the Japanese pharma company, under the brand name Mimrylo. 

Administered via a weekly injection, Mimrylo was cleared to treat polycythemia vera, a chronic blood cancer in which overproduction of red blood cells thickens a patient’s blood, resulting in higher risk for life-threatening heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.

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