Starting your patient on PrVELPHORO® ?
Tool for healthcare professionals
For answers to common questions regarding VELPHORO, download the fact sheet below, which is a concise overview of VELPHORO for healthcare professionals.
Tools for patients
Access useful resources for supporting your patients’ VELPHORO treatment journey!
Sharing this video will help them see what to expect.
VOICEOVER:
Starting PrVELPHORO?®
Here are some things I wanted to know when I was first starting my VELPHORO treatment.
Going over important information related to your medication, like what VELPHORO is, what dose to take, how to take it, and what to expect, will help you start your treatment journey.
VIVIANNE VOICEOVER:
Hi, I’m Vivianne, a patient using VELPHORO, and I’m your guide on the road to understanding your treatment.
Let’s start with the basics by going over what exactly VELPHORO is used for and how it works.
VELPHORO is used to control high phosphorus levels in adult patients like you or me, who have end-stage renal disease and are on dialysis.
While dosing can vary for each patient taking VELPHORO, let’s take a general look at its dosing and dosing adjustments.
The usual starting dose for VELPHORO is 3 tablets per day, while the maximum recommended dose is 6 tablets per day.
Your doctor will determine the correct dose for you and adjust it as needed.
Now that we’ve got the dosing figured out, let’s look at how to take VELPHORO.
VELPHORO is a woodberry-flavoured chewable tablet. It can be crushed to make it easier for you to chew, but do not swallow it whole!
Always take VELPHORO with a meal! You should divide the tablets across meals you eat each day.
For example, if you take 3 tablets a day, divide them so that you take 1 tablet at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Next, let’s look at some important things to keep an eye out for when starting VELPHORO.
When you begin taking VELPHORO, there are a few side effects that may occur.
You may experience diarrhea early on in your treatment that will most likely go away over time.
You may notice darker or even black stools. This can happen when taking an iron-containing pill like VELPHORO.
When taking VELPHORO, here are some possible side effects you might experience, some serious side effects and what to do about them, and some medications that might interact with it.
These are not all of the possible side effects you might feel, so if you experience any not listed here, make sure to contact your doctor.
And don’t forget to tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including any drugs, vitamins, minerals, natural supplements or alternative medicines.
Overall, maintaining an open dialogue with your doctor can help you along your treatment journey.
Thanks for watching! With this information we hope that you’re ready to start your VELPHORO treatment journey.
Want to share more information with your patients about VELPHORO, hyperphosphatemia, and controlling serum phosphorous levels? Here is the patient brochure.
Direct your patients to the ORIJIN velphoro.Orijinsupport.ca patient website.
Patients can log in using DIN: 02471574
Important Safety Information
- Clinical use:
- Efficacy and safety in pediatric population (<18 years of age) have not been evaluated.
- No overall differences in safety or efficacy were observed between subjects ≥65 and younger subjects.
- Contraindications:
- Patients who are hypersensitive to this drug or to any ingredient in the formulation, including any non-medicinal ingredient, or component of the container.
- Patients with hemochromatosis or any other iron accumulation disorders.
- Relevant warnings and precautions:
- Diabetes, hereditary fructose intolerance, glucose-galactose malabsorption, and sucrase-isomaltase insufficiency
- Caution in patients with gastrointestinal issues
- VELPHORO may cause black stools which may mask gastrointestinal bleeding
- Patients with hepatic/biliary/pancreatic disorders/disease
- Monitoring and laboratory tests regarding serum phosphorus and iron
- Pregnant or nursing women
- Less common clinical trial or post-market adverse reactions:
- In the 6-week and 55-week clinical studies, tooth discolouration and product taste were some of the less common (<1%), treatment-related treatment emergent adverse events reported in more than one patient.
- Eosinophilic peritonitis has been listed in post-market spontaneous reports.
- For more information:
- Please consult the Product Monograph at http://velphoromonograph.ca for important information relating to adverse reactions, drug interactions, and dosing information which have not been discussed in this piece. The Product Monograph is also available by calling us at 1-877-341-9245.