Daprodustat
Daprodustat (Jesduvroq) is an oral medication used to treat anemia caused by chronic kidney disease in adults on dialysis.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 1 clinical label set within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
⚠️ FDA Boxed Warning — the FDA’s strongest safety alert ▾
Jesduvroq carries a serious boxed warning about life-threatening blood clots. Taking this medication increases the risk of major cardiovascular events — including heart attack, stroke, blood clots in the veins, and clotting of your dialysis access site. Targeting a hemoglobin level above 11 g/dL makes these risks even greater. No dose or dosing approach has been proven completely safe from these risks. Your doctor will prescribe the lowest dose that reduces your need for blood transfusions and will monitor your hemoglobin regularly. Seek emergency medical care immediately if you experience chest pain, sudden weakness, difficulty speaking, or signs of a clot.
📖 Daprodustat: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Daprodustat — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Daprodustat (brand name Jesduvroq) is approved for one specific use in adults:
- Jesduvroq is used to treat anemia caused by chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults who have been receiving dialysis for at least four months.
- It is intended to reduce the need for red blood cell transfusions — not to replace them in an emergency.
- Jesduvroq is not approved for people with CKD who are not yet on dialysis.
- Jesduvroq has not been shown to improve quality of life, fatigue, or patient well-being.
⚙️How it works▾
Daprodustat works by blocking enzymes called HIF prolyl hydroxylases (HIF-PH1, PH2, and PH3). Under normal circumstances, these enzymes break down proteins called hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs). When daprodustat blocks these enzymes, HIF proteins accumulate and travel into the cell's nucleus, where they switch on genes — including the gene for erythropoietin, a hormone that tells the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. This mirrors the body's natural response to low oxygen. The result is a gradual, dose-related increase in red blood cell production over several weeks.
💊How it's taken▾
Jesduvroq is taken once daily by mouth, as a whole tablet. It can be taken with or without food, and the timing relative to dialysis does not matter. Your doctor will determine your starting dose based on your current hemoglobin level and whether you have been on another anemia medication called an ESA (erythropoiesis-stimulating agent). Doses are adjusted every four weeks at most, based on your blood test results.
- Swallow Jesduvroq tablets whole — never cut, crush, or chew them.
- If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember — unless your next dose falls on the same day, in which case skip the missed one.
- Never take two doses on the same day to make up for a missed one.
- People with moderate liver impairment or who take certain interacting medications may need a lower starting dose.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
The most common side effects reported in clinical trials of Jesduvroq include:
- High blood pressure (hypertension) — reported in about 1 in 4 patients
- Blood clots and thrombotic vascular events — including clotting of dialysis access sites, heart attack, and stroke
- Abdominal (belly) pain
- Dizziness
- Allergic reactions such as rash, hives, or skin inflammation
Serious reactions — including heart attack, stroke, severe high blood pressure, heart failure hospitalization, and stomach or esophageal bleeding — require prompt medical attention. Contact your doctor or seek emergency care if you experience any of these.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Blood clots and cardiovascular events: Jesduvroq increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, venous blood clots, and blockage of dialysis access. This is the most critical risk. Pushing hemoglobin above 11 g/dL makes it worse. No safe dose has been identified. Use the lowest effective dose and have hemoglobin checked regularly.
- Heart failure: People with a prior history of heart failure face a higher risk of being hospitalized for it while on Jesduvroq. Tell your doctor about any heart history before starting.
- High blood pressure: Jesduvroq is contraindicated if your blood pressure is uncontrolled. Even patients with controlled hypertension should have their blood pressure monitored regularly, as worsening — including hypertensive crisis and seizures — has been reported.
- Stomach and esophageal erosions: Gastric and esophageal erosions and GI bleeding have occurred. Risk is higher in those with a history of ulcers or GI problems, smokers, and heavy drinkers.
- Not for use without dialysis: In a trial of non-dialysis CKD patients, Jesduvroq was associated with increased risk of serious cardiovascular events, kidney injury, and GI complications — it is not approved or recommended in that population.
- Active cancer: Because the HIF pathway may affect cancer growth, Jesduvroq is not recommended in people with active malignancies.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Daprodustat is mainly processed by a liver enzyme called CYP2C8. Drugs that affect this enzyme can significantly change daprodustat levels in your blood:
- Gemfibrozil (strong CYP2C8 inhibitor): Completely contraindicated — it causes an almost 19-fold increase in daprodustat exposure, which is dangerous.
- Clopidogrel and other moderate CYP2C8 inhibitors: Raise daprodustat levels — your starting dose of Jesduvroq will need to be reduced by half, and your hemoglobin will be monitored closely.
- Rifampin and other CYP2C8 inducers: Can lower daprodustat levels and reduce how well it works — dose adjustment and more frequent hemoglobin checks may be needed when starting or stopping these drugs.
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure: Do not take Jesduvroq — it is contraindicated until blood pressure is adequately managed.
- Recent heart attack, stroke, or acute coronary syndrome (within 3 months): Avoid starting Jesduvroq; discuss with your doctor.
- History of heart failure: Use with caution — higher risk of hospitalization for heart failure.
- History of stomach ulcers or GI bleeding, or current tobacco or alcohol use: Increased risk of gastrointestinal erosions; inform your doctor.
- Liver problems: Moderate liver impairment requires a lower starting dose; severe liver impairment — Jesduvroq is not recommended.
- Pregnancy: Animal studies suggest potential harm to the fetus. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.
- Breastfeeding: Do not breastfeed during treatment or for one week after the last dose.
- Children: Safety and effectiveness have not been established in pediatric patients.
- Older adults (65+): No overall difference in safety or effectiveness was seen in clinical trials, but individual monitoring remains important.
🚑If you take too much▾
Taking too much Jesduvroq may cause headache and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea. There is no specific antidote for an overdose. Because daprodustat binds very tightly to proteins in the blood, hemodialysis will not effectively remove it from the body.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
After a dose, daprodustat begins increasing the body's own erythropoietin (the hormone that drives red blood cell production) within 6 to 8 hours. With repeated dosing, new red blood cell precursors (reticulocytes) peak between 7 and 15 days, and hemoglobin levels stabilize after several weeks — roughly 4 weeks in patients previously on ESA therapy, and 16–20 weeks in those who were not. Daprodustat also affects iron metabolism: it raises transferrin and total iron-binding capacity while lowering ferritin, transferrin saturation, and hepcidin, meaning iron supplementation is commonly needed during treatment.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Jesduvroq tablets are well absorbed after oral dosing, reaching peak blood levels within 1 to 4 hours, with an absolute bioavailability of 65%. Food — even a high-fat meal — does not meaningfully affect how much of the drug is absorbed. Daprodustat is more than 99% bound to proteins in the blood and has a short elimination half-life of approximately 1 to 4 hours, with steady-state levels reached within 24 hours of starting treatment. It is broken down primarily by a liver enzyme called CYP2C8 (about 95%), with most of the drug and its metabolites leaving the body in stool (74%) and urine (21%) within 7 days.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F); excursions permitted between 15°C and 30°C (59°F to 86°F).
📄 Written from Daprodustat’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Daprodustat
28 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Daprodustat in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 1
- Moderate · 16
- Minor · 11
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Daprodustat — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is Jesduvroq supposed to do for me? ▾
How long does it take to start working? ▾
What are the most important side effects I should know about? ▾
Are there any medications I absolutely cannot take with Jesduvroq? ▾
Can I take Jesduvroq if I'm pregnant or want to become pregnant? ▾
Do I need to take it at a specific time of day, or with food? ▾
Is Daprodustat available over the counter? ▾
When was Daprodustat first available? ▾
Who makes Daprodustat? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Daprodustat’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Daprodustat comes
Daprodustat is available in 1 form. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Tablet
How this form is used
- Jesduvroq tablets are used to treat anemia due to chronic kidney disease in adults who have been on dialysis for at least four months
- Jesduvroq tablets are not for use in CKD patients who are not on dialysis
- Jesduvroq tablets are not a substitute for emergency blood transfusions
- Jesduvroq tablets are taken once daily by mouth, with or without food
- Jesduvroq tablets must be swallowed whole — do not cut, crush, or chew them
- Jesduvroq can be taken without regard to the timing or type of dialysis
- If you miss a dose of Jesduvroq, take it as soon as possible — but if your next dose is due that same day, skip the missed dose and resume your normal schedule; never take two doses at once
📊 Daprodustat across the U.S. market
How Daprodustat appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (1) — bulk drug substance sold to compounders/manufacturers and multi-item kits. These aren’t counted in the dose-form total above.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
🔍 Compare Daprodustat products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Daprodustat — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Tablet | ||||
| 1 mg | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 2 mg | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 4 mg | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 6 mg | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 8 mg | — | Catalent Pharma Solutions, LLC | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 1 mg | — | Glaxo Operations UK Ltd | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 2 mg | — | Glaxo Operations UK Ltd | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 4 mg | — | Glaxo Operations UK Ltd | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 6 mg | — | Glaxo Operations UK Ltd | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 8 mg | — | Glaxo Operations UK Ltd | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
| 1 mg | Oral | GlaxoSmithKline LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 2 mg | Oral | GlaxoSmithKline LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 4 mg | Oral | GlaxoSmithKline LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 6 mg | Oral | GlaxoSmithKline LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 8 mg | Oral | GlaxoSmithKline LLC × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 1 kg/kg | — | Glaxo Wellcome Manufacturing Pte. Ltd | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 21 of 21 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 21 Daprodustat NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Daprodustat — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Daprodustat in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Daprodustat went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 2628210 1 dose form · 5 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Oral Tablet RxCUI 2628214In current FDA listings
Look up RxCUI 2628210 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Daprodustat is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
RxNorm drug class
Daprodustat belongs to the Hypoxia-inducible Factor Prolyl Hydroxylase Inhibitor class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 1 FDA-filed SPL label set within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
For canonical ingredient pages, bounded product-attributed indication and administration excerpts may be added to the AI evidence, and the generator is instructed to preserve available product, brand, route, and form qualifiers instead of treating one label as universal. Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. GlaxoSmithKline LLC is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.