WellPoint likely to follow FDA on anemia drugs

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - WellPoint Inc (WLP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the biggest U.S. health plan, will likely follow the lead of U.S. regulators, who are moving toward restricting the use of widely used anemia drugs sold by Amgen Inc (AMGN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a WellPoint official said on Monday.

In March a Food and Drug Administration panel recommended sharply restricting use of the drugs to patients whose cancers are not potentially curable, or who are not undergoing treatment.

The panel also recommended against use of the drugs in patients with advanced breast cancer or head and neck cancer. The agency typically takes the advice of its panels.

If the FDA followed that advice, WellPoint would mostly likely follow suit and restrict its coverage policy for the drugs, Sam Nussbaum, the chief medical officer of WellPoint, told Reuters.

"That is where we are heading," Nussbaum said. WellPoint's health plans cover about one in every 10 Americans.

Tens of thousands of cancer patients now take the drugs for anemia caused by chemotherapy. Their safety has been under a cloud for more than a year after eight studies found evidence of tumor growth or shorter survival for some patients given high doses of the drugs.

Despite tighter reimbursement for the drugs from the government's Medicare program for the elderly, insurers had taken a less-restrictive position on paying for the drugs.

Nussbaum cited internal WellPoint data finding that as many as 25 percent of its patients were getting the wrong type of dosing for the drugs, in most cases too much.