Efficacy and safety of roxadustat for anaemia in dialysis‐dependent and non‐dialysis‐dependent chronic kidney disease patients: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

AIMS Renal anaemia is a common complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Roxadustat is the first-in-class oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor for the treatment of anaemia. In this systematic review, we aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of roxadustat in the treatment of anaemia in CKD patients. METHODS PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched from their inception to February 2021 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the efficacy and safety of roxadustat to those of an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) or a placebo in treating anaemia in CKD patients. RESULTS Nine RCTs involving 2743 patients were found. The meta-analysis showed that roxadustat increased haemoglobin (Hb) level by 0.91 g/dL (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.47-1.34, P