Numerous studies (Provenzano et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2019a; Chen et al., 2019b; Liu J. et al., 2020) have demonstrated that both in the dialysis-dependent (DD)-CKD patients and in the non-dialysis-dependent (NDD)-CKD patients, roxadustat showed a significant effect on erythropoiesis while maintaining plasma erythropoietin levels within or near the normal physiologic range. The gene discussed is EPO; the disease is chronic kidney disease.