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When he worked for the California-based biotechnology company Amgen in the 1990s, Steve Elliott was instrumental in the development of darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp), a drug to treat anemia in people with chronic renal failure. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2001, darbepoetin is a second-generation version of recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) purified from Chinese hamster ovary cells that express the modified gene.
EPO is a cytokine produced by the kidneys that sends a signal to the bone marrow to increase production of red blood cells (RBCs). For anemic patients, the drug can be lifesaving. But for people with normal red blood cell counts, it offers something else: a boost in physical performance by increasing the amount of oxygen the blood can carry to muscles. As Elliott his colleagues developed the drug, “it was apparent that Aranesp would be used for doping,” he says.
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