GSK plc may have pushed the door open Oct. 26 for the use of a new class of oral drugs to treat anemia in U.S. patients with chronic kidney disease who are dialysis dependent. The U.S. FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 13-3 that the benefits of GSK’s daprodustat outweighed the risks in that population. However, the committee didn’t push the door wide enough for patients not on dialysis, voting 5-11 on the question of whether the drug’s benefits outweighed its risk in the nondialysis population, even though that group conceivably could see a greater benefit. The test now is whether the FDA will follow the committee’s lead.