Pharmacosmos A/S, a Denmark-based industry leader for developing and marketing medicines for the treatment of iron deficiency, said its Monofer, a new generation of innovative intravenous iron for the treatment of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia, will soon be officially available to Chinese patients.

Commercial channels and distribution networks have been in place, and first prescriptions of the drug are expected to come within the next few days, said Kathy Liu, managing director of Pharmacosmos in China.

The drug was the first innovative intravenous iron approved in China since 2005, when the National Medical Products Administration approved it in February for the treatment of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia in adult patients who have an intolerance to oral iron, have had an unsatisfactory response to oral iron, or when there is a clinical need to deliver iron rapidly.

Monofer provides the opportunity to infuse a single dose of 1,000 mg iron from 15 to more than 30 minutes, reducing the duration of a session of IV iron treatment from hours to less than an hour. That means health care provides can deliver a fast iron correction, especially before and post surgery, and can potentially reduce the number of blood infusions significantly, according to Pei Fuxing, director of the Orthopedics Department of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University.

The drug also is expected to expand the use of IV iron across multiple therapeutic areas in China, as iron-deficient anemia is a frequent condition for patients across various therapeutic areas.

The Chinese market of intravenous iron for the treatment of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia is one of the largest in the world, with a general prevalence of about 20 percent among Chinese, some research showed.