Drug Company Halts Trials of Procrit.

CLINICAL trials; DRUG side effects; JOHNSON & Johnson (Company); MEDICAL experimentation on humans; ANEMIA; CANCER patients; BLOOD coagulation; KIDNEY diseases; HEMOGLOBINS; CLINICAL medicine; MEDICAL research

Reports on the halting of medical trials using the drug Procrit. Johnson & Johnson reported that higher than expected number blood clots formed in patients treated with the anemia drug; What Procrit is and how it is currently used to help patients with anemia following cancer treatment or kidney failure; Suspension of four clinical trials to look at the drug as a possible treatment for cancer and to push hemoglobin to higher than expected limits;Comments from a doctor involved with a trial on the safety of the drug as it is currently used; Reaction from Amgen, maker of the similar drugs, Epogen and Aranesp.