Anemia is one of the most common problems of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). Its main causes in this population are: iron deficiency and a decreased renal synthesis of erythropoietin. Up to the 80's of the twentieth century, treatment of anemia in CKD was limited to blood and red blood cells transfusions. However during last three decades there has been a huge progress in the field, starting with introduction into clinical practice of human recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEPO), followed by an appearance of agents with a longer duration of action, darbepoetin alfa and methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta, all of which are shortly reviewed in this paper.