Deferiprone Lipomed

Deferiprone Lipomed is an ‘iron chelator’ (a substance that attaches to iron) that is used to treat iron overload (an excess of iron in the body) in patients with thalassaemia major. This is an inherited disease in which patients are unable to make enough haemoglobin, the protein found in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. Deferiprone Lipomed is used: - on its own, when standard iron chelator treatment cannot be used or is inadequate; - in combination with another iron chelator, when treatment with one iron chelator on its own is ineffective or when prevention or treatment of life-threatening conditions requires rapid or intensive correction of iron levels. Deferiprone Lipomed contains the active substance deferiprone and is a ‘generic medicine’. This means that Deferiprone Lipomed contains the same active substance and works in the same way as a ‘reference medicine’ already authorised in the EU called Ferriprox.