Romiplostim
Generic name: romiplostim
Brand name: Nplate
Dosage form: subcutaneous injection
Drug class:Platelet-stimulating agents
What is romiplostim?
Romiplostim belongs to a class of drugs called TPO (thrombopoietin) peptide mimetics. These drugs help your body to make more platelets, which are cells that help your blood to clot.
Romiplostim works by mimicking the action of your own natural TPO, which is a hormone produced by your liver and kidneys that regulates how many platelets you produce. Romiplostim binds to and activates the same receptors that your own endogenous TPO uses to increase platelet production. It is a TPO receptor agonist.
Romiplostim is a peptibody, which is a peptide fused to an antibody. It was the first fully engineered peptibody designed to stimulate platelet production and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008.
What is romiplostim used for?
- Romiplostim is a prescription medicine used to treat low blood platelet counts (thrombocytopenia) in:
- adults with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) when certain medicines or surgery to remove your spleen have not worked well enough.
- children 1 year of age and older with ITP for at least 6 months when certain medicines or surgery to remove your spleen have not worked well enough.
- Romiplostim is a prescription medicine also used to treat people including newborns who have been exposed to high levels of radiation (acute radiation syndrome). The effectiveness of romiplostim for this use was only studied in animals, because it could not be studied in people.
- Romiplostim is not for use in people with a precancerous condition called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), or low platelet count caused by any condition other than ITP.
- Romiplostim is only used if your low platelet count and medical condition increase your risk of bleeding.
- Romiplostim is used to try to keep your platelet count about 50,000 per microliter in order to lower the risk for bleeding. romiplostim is not used to make your platelet count normal.
- It is not known if romiplostim is safe and effective in children under the age of 1.
Important information
Romiplostim can cause serious side effects, including:
- Worsening of a precancerous blood condition to a blood cancer (leukemia). Romiplostim is not for use in people with a precancerous condition called myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), or for any condition other than immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). If you have MDS and receive romiplostim, your MDS condition may worsen and become an acute leukemia. If MDS worsens to become acute leukemia you may die sooner from the acute leukemia.
- Higher risk for blood clots.
- You may have a higher risk of getting a blood clot if your platelet count becomes high during treatment with romiplostim. You may have severe complications or die from some forms of blood clots, such as clots that spread to the lungs or that cause heart attacks or strokes.
- If you ha.
