Ferric Citrate Tablets

Clinical Trials Experience

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to adverse reaction rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.

Adverse reactions to a drug are most readily ascertained by comparison with placebo, but there is little placebo-controlled experience with Auryxia, so this section describes adverse events with Auryxia, some of which may be disease-related, rather than treatment-related.

A total of 289 patients were treated with Auryxia and 149 patients were treated with active control (sevelamer carbonate and/or calcium acetate) during the 52-week, randomized, open-label, active control phase of a trial in patients on dialysis. A total of 322 patients were treated with Auryxia for up to 28 days in three short-term trials. Across these trials, 557 unique patients were treated with Auryxia; dosage regimens in these trials ranged from 210 mg to 2,520 mg of ferric iron per day, equivalent to 1 to 12 tablets of Auryxia. In these trials, adverse events reported for Auryxia were similar to those reported for the active control group.

Adverse events reported in more than 5% of patients treated with Auryxia in these trials included diarrhea (21%), nausea (11%), constipation (8%), vomiting (7%), and cough (6%).

During the 52-week, active-control period, 60 patients (21%) on Auryxia discontinued study drug because of an adverse event, as compared to 21 patients (14%) in the active control arm. Patients who were previously intolerant to any of the active control treatments (calcium acetate and sevelamer carbonate) were not eligible to enroll in the study. Gastrointestinal adverse reactions were the most common reason for discontinuing Auryxia (14%).

Auryxia is associated with discolored feces (dark stools) related to the iron content, but this staining is not clinically relevant and does not affect laboratory tests for occult bleeding, which detect heme rather than non-heme iron in the stool.

Read the entire FDA prescribing information for Auryxia (Ferric Citrate Tablets)