Rockwell Looking to Start New Iron Age

“SFP essentially bypasses the liver and the other iron stores, and delivers iron directly into the blood in very small amounts, so that the blood’s carrying capacity for iron is not overrun,” Gupta said. “It takes it directly to the bone marrow, completely bypassing the liver, lymph nodes, spleen, etc."

Gupta estimated that the SFP’s iron delivery is close to 100 percent. “We are delivering it directly to the bone marrow—just as you do when you eat a steak,” he added. “When you eat a steak, and you are iron deficient, then the iron that is absorbed goes directly to the bone marrow from the bloodstream.”

More delivered iron could also reduce expensive erythropoietin use, said Gupta. When EPO is dosed, you need iron. One of the reasons so much EPO gets used is because EPO is dosed, but at that time iron isn’t available. So for it to work effectively or efficiently, more EPO would have to be dosed. SFP has iron available all of the time.

“There should be a benefit of needing less EPO, which is nice,” Chioni said. “But with the bundling environment coming our way in 2011, especially, it’s a perfect timing for this product. By maintaining iron on a consistent basis and being able to have it there when EPO is dosed, we believe we’ll see somewhere between 20 and 50 percent less EPO needing to be dosed.”

In addition to potential cost saving from less EPO, Chioni said using SFP could also save money because delivering it through the dialysate eliminates a needle, a syringe and an RN, who has to spend between five and fifteen minutes per patient to deliver the IV iron. “There is a savings there,” Chioni said. RBT