Medicare on Sept. 24th informed doctors it does not intend to reconsider its decision to limit circumstances under which it will pay for biologic anemia drugs for cancer patients unless "new evidence" is provided within the next 30 days demonstrating that the agency "misinterpreted existing evidence."

The Medicare agency took the stand in a letter sent to physicians who have urged it to reverse a decision to only pay for biologic drugs Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit for cancer patients suffering from anemia as a result of chemotherapy whose hemoglobin levels fell below 10 grams per deciliter.

Medicare decided to restrict reimbursement use of the anemia drugs to treat cancer patients earlier this year after studies suggested physicians may have been overprescribing the biologics resulting in higher risk of heart trouble, tumor growth and death.

Doctors, patients and organizations including the American Society for Clinical Oncology subsequently flooded Medicare with more than 2,600 comments and letters protesting the decision.

But in its response to ASCO, Medicare said that while it will reconsider a coverage decision "when new evidence is presented or arguments are presented that the Agency materially misinterpreted existing evidence, in this case no new evidence was presented."

In its letter, the Medicare agency asked for proof that patients undergoing chemotherapy require hemoglobin levels above 10 grams per deciliter and evidence that use of the biologic drugs is superior to blood transfusion for maintaining that level.