Recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSFs) such as filgrastim or lenograstim are being used to treat chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. The aim of the present study was to investigate a new G-CSF, XM02, in comparison to filgrastim in terms of safety and efficacy in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in non-Hodgkin-lymphoma (NHL). A total of 92 patients receiving chemotherapy were randomised in cycle 1 to treatment with daily injections (subcutaneous 5 microg/kg/day) of XM02 (n = 63) or filgrastim (n = 29) for at least 5 days and a maximum of 14 days. In subsequent cycles, all patients received XM02. The mean duration of severe neutropenia (DSN) was 0.5 and 0.9 days in cycle 1 for XM02 and filgrastim, respectively (p = 0.1055). In cycle 1, the incidence of febrile neutropenia (FN) was 11.1% for XM02 and 20.7% for filgrastim (p = 0.1232). The adverse event profile was similar between XM02 and filgrastim. XM02 demonstrated equivalent efficacy and similar safety profile as the reference medication filgrastim. Treatment with XM02 is as beneficial as filgrastim in ameliorating severe neutropenia and FN in patients with NHL receiving chemotherapy. XM02 is safe and well tolerated in the doses applied in this study.