[IPS Blog] Neulasta - Neulasta

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Neulasta is approved as a treatment for patients undergoing chemotherapy, to decrease the incidence of infection by febrile neutropenia. It is administered in a single fixed dose per each cycle of chemotherapy. Neutropenia is a serious and frequent complication of chemotherapy, especially common in the elderly. As well as killing cancer cells, chemotherapy destroys normal cells. A large drop in neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, renders the body unable to defend itself against most types of infection.

Neulasta provides a great advantage over currently available white blood cell stimulating products, by requiring less frequent dosing. This means fewer painful injections, fewer office visits and fewer disruptions in daily life. Amgen's original neutropenic protectant, Neupogen, requires up to two weeks of daily injections after each chemotherapy cycle, with half of patients needing ten or more each day, as opposed to one injection of Neulasta .

With approximately 1.4 million patients receiving chemotherapy in the United States in 2001, protection against neutropenic infection is very important. This is especially true for the elderly, who in the next 20 years, will represent the majority of patients receiving chemotherapy.

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