FRANKFURT (Reuters) – AstraZeneca said on Friday that safety data on roxadustat underpinned the British drugmaker’s hopes for the anemia drug to become a standard treatment for patients with kidney disease.

It said pooled data from several late-stage trials showed that roxadustat did not increase the risk of potentially deadly cardiovascular complications like heart attacks and strokes when used instead of epo, which is the standard treatment for dialysis patients against lack of red blood cells from kidney disease.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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