For people with polycythemia vera, the standard of care has long involved showing up to have blood removed. Not once, but repeatedly, sometimes every few weeks, for years, because thinning the blood is the most direct way to keep clots, strokes, and heart attacks at bay.
The Food and Drug Administration has now approved a drug aimed squarely at that routine. Mimrylo, known generically as rusfertide, was cleared on August 28 to treat the overproduction of red blood cells in adults with polycythemia vera. In its pivotal trial, 76.9 percent of patients taking it needed no therapeutic blood draws over a 32-week stretch, compared with 32.9 percent on placebo.
